


All The Little Things

by Dorks_are_just_people_who_care_a_lot



Category: Single Parents (TV 2018)
Genre: After the Episode, Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:46:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23795602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorks_are_just_people_who_care_a_lot/pseuds/Dorks_are_just_people_who_care_a_lot
Summary: This series is sort an "after the episode," or a continuation of each episode that fills in some of the scenes we didn't see, as Will and Angie start to realize their feelings for each other. All totally within cannon.
Relationships: Angie D'Amato & Graham D'Amato, Sophie Cooper & Will Cooper, Will Cooper/Angie D'Amato, Will Cooper/Tracy Freeze
Comments: 32
Kudos: 50





	1. Sometimes, though you love someone... (2x08, Every thursday should be like this)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm starting way back with "Every Thursday Should Be Like This," because of course we were all just DYING to know what was going on in Angie's head when Tracy promised to keep her secret!

It was late when everyone finally cleared out of Douglas’s house after Thanksgiving. After the kids’ attempt to put on a play (Despite his success last year in Grease, Angie wasn’t so sure her son had a bright future in acting), they’d all eaten Will’s perfectly crafted pumpkin pie, along with Tony’s pecan one (Will made sure to remind everyone that pumpkin pie was the only “normal and acceptable” choice for Thanksgiving, though by that point Tony was already asleep). Then Poppy and Rory left, Rory citing his need for beauty sleep after a hard day’s work directing. Will, always a stickler for bedtimes, headed home with Sophie around 9:30, and Tracy soon followed. Tony and Cassandra went to bed, Miggy and Pronstroller went back to his place to relieve the babysitter watching Jack. The twins disappeared to their shed, and Graham and Douglas both fell asleep on the couch watching football highlights.   
And somehow Angie found herself back here. The same place she found herself every previous Thanksgiving for the last decade; at the counter at Walter’s, eating his signature apple pie. Of course, in past years she’d usually had Graham as company, and usually her trips to Walter’s were made with the same fierce confidence people use when they go out alone on Valentine’s day; defiant, and insistent that this was what she wanted.  
But this wasn’t what she wanted. 

She’d started out the holiday season with resolve. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done a big group thing for the holidays, and she was excited for Graham to have the experience. This was the first year since Graham was born that Angie had not just a good group of friends, but a group of people she considered family, and some quality time with them was badly needed. Especially with Will. He was always busy doing Douglas’s room parent work, taking Sophie to bell choir rehearsal, and just generally being the perfect dad. She was busy figuring out how to get her and Graham a new house. It had been busy the last few months.

But in the days leading up, when it became clear that she’d be the only single person at the entire party, Angie started to feel a lot more like Cookies, the pitiful turkey Rory attempted to pardon on behalf of Hilltop; the lonely looking old bird that everyone pretends is just as important to the holiday as everyone else, before they return to their annoying couple-y habits (and their turkey eating!) right after.

Angie and Graham had been the first to the Thanksgiving party that day, on account of their continued residence in Douglas’s sauna. Graham had even spent the morning assisting Tony in the kitchen, though Angie made him promise never to tell Will. She liked to see Graham cooking; he and Sophie often helped Will cook dinner when they all ate together. And some part of Angie thought if she could raise a brilliant little chef, she could steer her son away from the fate of his deep frying, fast-food working father.

Around noon, Will and Sophie arrived, arms full of grocery bags. Will had come in muttering about Tony’s head start on the day; He’d even asked Douglas if he could spend the night here in order to get cooking early the next morning, a request which Douglas had (rightfully) denied. Angie and Graham were assigned to set the table, but Graham informed her that he was “off the clock today” (where did he learn that phrase from?), and abandoned her to plop himself down with the twins in front of the TV. 

She’d had big plans to eat as much food as she wanted, drink wine, and tune out the kids for the entire day. No responsibilities involved. So when Will hurriedly asked Angie to hang out with Tracy so he could cook, she felt like she’d been handed an unwanted babysitting job. When she protested that she’d “barely even said four words” to Tracy, Will gave her a weird look. But it was true! Will and Tracy were both busy people, and what little time they had together, they kept away from the rest of the group. Nobody had really gotten to know Tracy that well. Not to mention the fact that Tracy was weather woman! Weather, the universally acknowledged most boring conversation topic of all time.

The thing was, Tracy was just so annoyingly perfect. She was beautiful, smart, and funny, and she could talk to Will about weather stuff, because she actually knew things about weather. So, it was perfectly excusable that Angie had never talked to her. Perfection was an annoying trait in people. 

But once she and Tracy got to talking, giggling like children as they downed their second bottle of wine, Angie had to admit they got along pretty well. And hearing that Tracy knew Walter’s, and had a pet bearded dragon, it made Tracy seem a lot more normal. Which made sense, because of course Will wouldn’t be dating her if she wasn’t amazing. Angie wondered in the back of her mind why she’d assumed (or hoped?) that Tracy was such a stuck up perfectionist. It turned out she was pretty freaking awesome! So why did that kind of make Angie feel even worse?

Walter interrupted Angie’s internal rant when he came to take her plate.

“Can I get you anything else Angie?”

“I don’t know. Can I see the dessert menu again?”

As if she didn’t have the whole menu memorized at this place.

“You know,” Walter said with a sympathetic smile, “you can just sit here for a while if you want. Closing’s not for another thirty minutes.” He disappeared into the kitchen.

Ugh. Angie wished she had somewhere else to be right then than there, in that restaurant littered with only the loneliest people in town.  
Her mind kept replaying the same moment over and over; Tracy promising to keep Angie’s secret, her eyes filled with pity in a way that made Angie feel like a child. Being kicked out of her seat, and finding a spot at the kids’ table, only to wonder why on earth she’d assumed that the seat next to Will’s was hers in the first place. It had been tough recently, watching everyone in the group in their happy relationships. She told herself she didn’t mind, that she had a lot on her plate right now, and as long as she had Graham, and good friends like Will, she didn’t need anyone else. But then there were nights like this, when she wanted to call someone, wished she had had someone to talk to, but knew they were all busy with their partners. 

Emotions. Angie’s least favorite thing.

She wanted to be angry at Tracy. Because seriously, Tracy sucked. But maybe the turkey coma was finally setting in, because Angie just felt exhausted.

Angie’s phone buzzed in her pocket. Pulling it out, she felt her heart skip when she saw it was an incoming call from Will. Not wanting to seem desperate, she waited for a few rings, wondering what this could possibly be. She hoped everything had gone okay with Tracy. What if Tracy told him how she felt about Sophie and they broke up? Angie didn’t have time to wonder why that was the first scenario she thought of before she answered the call. She tried to be chill, cupping the phone slightly so he wouldn’t realize where she was.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Angie?”

It was Sophie.

“Sophie…? Why are you calling me, it’s way past your bedtime.”

“Yeah, well apparently there’s a really interesting cold front coming in or something, so he got an important call from work, got distracted, and forgot about me. I was quiet so he wouldn’t notice. He’s in the shower now, so I stole his phone.”

There’s a pause for a minute, Angie trying to understand what exactly is happening.

“Sophie, is everything okay?”

Angie hears Sophie sigh on the other end of the phone.

“Angie, I wanted to say sorry. For today, when I was asking Tracy about Thanksgiving, but I didn’t ask you, because, to be honest, you don’t normally know a lot of stuff. But as a rising performer, I don’t want to be a diva like Rory. And I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

As Angie listened to Sophie’s speech, she felt a little smile run over her face.

“Sophie, that is very sweet of you to apologize, but I promise you didn’t hurt my feelings. And your instinct was right; I know nothing about the story of thanksgiving except the Charlie Brown specials. I think one of the ships was the Santa Maria?”

There was another sigh from Sophie.

“Angie?”

“Yeah Sophie?”

“Angie… is it bad that I don’t like Tracy that much?”

Ten minutes ago, hearing Sophie say those words would’ve made Angie feel triumphant. But she heard how nervous Sophie sounded, and now Angie just felt guilty.  
“Sophie, why do you say that? Tracy is a really nice person. And she likes your Dad a lot.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think she really understands me. Sometimes when I say hi to her, she just pauses for a really long time and then she says, ‘nice shoes.’ Even if she’s already seen my shoes before! I think she just likes my dad, not me.”

“Soph, have you told your dad this?”

“That would hurt his feelings too much Angie. Or he would break up with Tracy, and I don’t want that. I just… I wanted to know if you think that’s bad.”

Angie felt her mom mode kick in. If there were ever moments where it felt like being a mom gave her superpowers, giving kickass advice to kids was one of them.  
“Sophie, you can feel however you want about Tracy. And you’re also allowed to tell your dad how you feel, because he loves you, and you are the most important person in his life. And Tracy does like you. She just… doesn’t really understand kids yet. But she’s working on it, I promise. And in the meantime, if any time you need a Tracy break, you’re always welcome to hang with me and Graham.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sophie replied softly. She paused before adding, “Thanks Angie.”

“Anytime, Soph. Now maybe you should go get ready for bed.”

“That would be smart, but I’m gonna see if I can sneak in some ipad time before Dad remembers I’m still up.”

That made Angie laugh. Sophie was such a bright kid.

Just then, she heard a door opening on Sophie’s end of the phone, and Will’s distant voice. 

“Sophie?”

Angie heard what she assumed was the sound of Sophie hurriedly trying to hide Will’s phone under a pillow or something. She debated hanging up, but thought it would be fun to mess with Will about this, so she waited for another thirty seconds or so until she heard the phone being recovered.

“I’m coming to your room in ten minutes and you’d better be in your PJ’s, teeth brushed, and in bed,” Angie heard Will calling. Then, “Oh my God, Angie? Angie, are you there?”

“Yes, actually I am,” she replied, suddenly not sure if it was weird that she hadn’t hung up.

“Sorry I missed your call, I was in the shower. And somehow it seems my eight year old is already capable of outsmarting me, which is an issue for another time.”

“Yeah, that’s one smart cookie you’ve got there, Will.”

“Yeah,” he replied, and Angie could hear the smile in his voice. “So, uh, why did you call then?”

“I didn’t! Sophie called me.”

“What?”

“Dude, she called me! I swear.”

“What? Why?”

Angie didn’t want to lie to Will for the second time that day. She paused, wondering how much confidentiality she was reasonably expected to maintain for Sophie.  
“She… it was some argument she and I had earlier today. It was the heat of the moment, and she was stressed about their play. So anyway I guess she felt bad, and she called to say she was sorry.”

There was a small pause during which Angie feel Will’s heart melting.

“Did she really?” he asked. “That’s so sweet of her. But I’m just surprised she didn’t say anything to me about it. Did she say anything else?”

“Will, I’m not gonna lie, there may have been some girl secrets shared. But trust me, nothing important. It’s okay for kids to not tell their parents everything, you know.”

“I know Ange. And I’m glad she has you as a confidant. She really likes you a lot.”

“Well, you and Graham have been really vibing, with your arcade outings and pizza nights, Sophie and I have catching up to do! If you don’t get alone with your friends kids, what kind of person are you?”

The instant she said it, Angie regretted that last sentence. Luckily Will didn’t know what she was referencing. Still, as if he could somehow sense Tracy on her brain, Will paused for a moment before responding, more serious now.”

“Angie, on the subject of…girl secrets or whatever, I know that Tracy said something that upset you today, that made you "I mean" her. And it wasn’t that made up story you gave me about her wanting to try Tony’s turkey.”

“What? What’re you talking about of course it was,” Angie stumbled, trying to think of another convincing lie as backup.  
“No, I know it wasn’t Angie, because after dinner tonight, I asked her why she left, and she told me it was because you insulted her bearded dragon and told her it was a lame pet.”

Angie grinned despite herself.

“That does sound like something I’d say.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Don’t you believe your girlfriend?”

Will sighed, and when he spoke again, he was slower, and quiet.

“I love Tracy, and I love Sophie. But sometimes, even though you love someone, you keep secrets from them. Maybe even because you love them. For their sake. I trust you. I know you wouldn’t keep anything from me unless it was important. So I won’t pry.”

Angie felt herself relax. She hadn’t realized how stressed she’d felt during this conversation. She felt torn between wishing she could tell Will everything, and wishing they could never speak of this again so she could just forget about Tracy’s little secret.

“Thanks, Will. I promise, it’s no big deal.”

“No, it’s a big deal Angie. I owe you a million times over for all of your help and support today. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Her heart is beating absurdly fast in her chest, and Angie begins to feel the dreaded onslaught of feelings surging up inside her. Someone in her brain hits the panic button, and she decides she needs to end this call now.

“Okay, I gotta go put Graham to bed now.”

“Oh phew,” Will replies in exaggerated relief. “At least I’m not the only negligent parent tonight.”

“Good night-”

“Oh, Angie, one more thing?”

“Yeah?”

There’s a pause before he asks very seriously; “Should I shave the beard or not?”

Angie’s grinning now. “I meeeeeeaaaann…”

Will sighs dramatically, but she can hear his smile on his words.

“Good night Angie.”

“Good night Will. And give Sophie a hug for me.”

Angie ends the call and flips her phone face down on the formica countertop, sinking her face into her hands. She’s got a million feelings swirling around in her right now and they’re not calming down, and she wonders if maybe she needs to eat some more pie to distract herself. All of the day’s frustrations, like the look on Will’s face when I thought it was her fault that Tracy had left, or the feeling of rejection when she’d ended up at the kids table, suddenly felt like no big deal. Talking to Will could do that; it could turn your whole day around, make all problems seem smaller. She was lucky to have such a good friend.

Leaving a few bills on the counter, Angie took the last swig of her coffee and gathered up her stuff to head home. Suddenly there was nothing she wanted more than to leave the sad singleness of Walter’s and return home to her family.

Sometimes, even though you love someone, you keep secrets from them. For their sake.

Deep down, Angie kind of hoped he would keep the beard.


	2. Oh D'Amato, what have you gotten yourself into? (2x09, A place where men can be men)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angie and Will discuss their days; Will having "the talk" with Graham, and Angie accidentally introducing Sophie to the world of thievery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This picks up right at the end of the episode, including Angie and Will's conversation at Yogurt spot. Sorry if this one feels a bit rushed! I included a little from both Angie and Will's perspectives, so if you have thoughts about which you prefer (or if you like the mix of both), feel free to leave a comment!

It had been a long day, and upon arriving at Yogurt Spot, Will had wanted nothing more than to drop Graham off, grab Sophie, and get home to watch Netflix in his comfiest pajama pants. But he was a sucker for frozen yogurt, and Angie and Sophie were nowhere to be seen, so he grabbed himself a cup and found a seat away from everyone else to sit and think. He had a lot of thinking today after today.

His father. Cheating on his mother. His father! The man who had taught Will everything about what it meant to be a good man, to have good relationships. He’d been so confident about this whole talk with Graham. Maybe a little too confident. But in the last few months, everything had been going so good in his life! Who better for Graham to learn from then himself? Now Will wasn’t sure of anything anymore. He wished Angie would show up with Sophie already, but of course they were late. “Fashionably Late,” as Angie would no doubt insist to him. All he really wanted was to see his best friend and his daughter right now.

He must have been zoned out and not paying attention, because suddenly Angie was beside him, sliding into the seat next to him with a cup of frozen yogurt cup that she’d filled with Oreos and gummy bears in typical Angie fashion.

“So, how did the talk go?” she asked.

For a second, Will tried to appear upbeat, but this was Angie. She’d know if he lied. “Um, pretty good. Except for the fact that I found out my father’s been cheating on my mother for many, many years.”

Her face changed to confusion, clearly trying to follow how this revelation came out of Will’s “birds and bees” chat with Graham.

“Oh man. Not dope dude. Not dope.” She gave him a pat on the back, clearly waiting for him to offer more information.

“Hey, how was your day with Sophie?” He deflected, changing the subject. “Where is she, by the way?”

“She’s, uh, right there.” Angie pointed to the toppings bar, where Rory was standing next to some girl with pink ha—oh dear God that was SOPHIE! 

His words came out before he could even think. “Oh, you died her hair. I’ll kill you!” He paused. “I’m sorry.”

“I think she’s just trying to mix it up, is there any chance you could be on board with it?”

“You’re sure the dye’s non-toxic though, right?”

“Oh no no no it’s hair dye from the grocery store, it’s definitely toxic, so just squeeze my arm and smile at your daughter.”

His brain, still in panic mode, somehow managed to follow Angie’s instructions, grabbing squeezing her arm just as Sophie looked over at him with a huge grin, twirling to show off her hair.

“Hi Sophie! You look great! I’m totally fine with it!” Lowering his voice, he continued through gritted teeth. “This has been a really bad day.”

“I know man, I know.” Angie put down her yogurt and placed her free hand on his arm, subtly prying his fingers off her forearm.

Angie paused for a minute, probably trying to tell exactly how angry he was about this whole hair dyeing situation. Then she asked, “So, about your parents…?”

Will sighed. He had not planned to re-hash this again; not after spending the entire day freaking out about it and ruining his time with Douglas and Graham. Plus somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he should probably be angry at Angie, for going insane and letting his daughter dye her hair hot pink. But…well, it was Angie. After all, she knew his parents. Nearly every time they were visiting him and Sophie, Angie managed to end up at Will’s house. Probably because she managed to end up there a lot these days. His parents really liked Angie, and always wanted her and Graham to join them and Will and Sophie for dinner. And after one time a couple months ago when Angie helped Will’s dad reset his facebook password, they’d decided she was a tech genius. They still called her sometimes with their questions (and at least half the time, it was because his dad had forgotten his facebook password again).

The point was, if there was anybody who he could tell this to, who could make him feel better about this, it was Angie. 

“I found a note in my old sex ed textbook. It was written to my dad, from Mrs. Hawthorne, the other health teacher,” he told her. “I guess they were hooking up for years.”

“Does your mom know?”

“I have no idea! I assume not! I mean, I just can’t believe it Angie. That man taught me all about the importance of healthy relationships and sexuality, and it was all a lie! I thought I was the perfect person to give Graham the talk, but it turns out I learned from a two-timing cheater.”

“Well, regardless of your dad’s personal choices, you learned the right lessons,” she said firmly. “Listen man, I’m really glad you were willing to talk to Graham.”

Will chuckled. “Actually, in the end Douglas did most of the important talking. I may have freaked out and skated away at full speed. Douglas had to chase me down in his car.” Saying it out loud, it all felt so ridiculous.

“Does that have anything to do with why Graham is still wearing skates right now?” Angie asked.

“Yeah, it might.” They watched Graham across the room as he struggled to join the booth his friends were sitting in, clumsily tripping over his skates. “We may have accidentally stolen those. Sorry, I think I may have helped your son commit a theft today.”

Angie laughed. “You’re not the only one dude.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, uh nothing, nevermind, there was no problem!” Angie replied way too quickly for it to be the truth. Before he could question her further, she added, “I’m sorry I dyed Sophie’s hair without asking you. I just think she’s getting bored of being perfect all the time. She just wanted to do something different. I didn’t mean to corrupt your perfect daughter.”

“I get it, Ange. I just wish her definition of doing something different meant trying a new outfit or something. Like the twins.”

Will gestured to Emma and Amy, who were dressed differently than normal for the first time he could remember.

“Wow,” Angie said. “Amy can really pull off sparkles. Nice to see them wearing clothes that don’t look like they came from the wardrobe of a middle aged man.

“Angie, I’m glad Sophie has you to let her try new things. I know I’m not the most exciting dad in the world. She could use a little bit more crazy in her life.” Will smirked, adding, “You’re her mighty oak, I guess.”

Angie laughed. “Dude, believe me, I tried to get her to say that. She told me I was more like a shrub. But I promise you, you are the best dad in the world to that girl. Meanwhile I feel like I’m failing at parenting left and right.” 

Will wanted to cut her off like he always did when she got down on herself like this. To remind her of exactly what an amazing mom she was. But he could sense that Angie was on the precipice of expressing actual feelings, so this was delicate territory. After a couple moments, she continued.

“It’s just, like, Graham is growing up so fast. Last year he got a girlfriend, then a few months later he went through his heartbreaker phase and almost became a puka shell wearing Jersey shore wannabe. Now he’s asking questions about sex? I can’t keep up! And he has all these questions that I just… I wish he had a dad to answer for him.”

Will listened intently while she spoke, his hand reaching out to rest on her shoulder out of habit.

“Angie, you are a great mom. You have so much on your plate right now, your freaking house burned down! And you’re handling it all the best that you can. Graham is totally normal for his age. And I’m always happy to do the dad things when you need. Believe me, when Sophie has her first real boy problems or needs to go bra shopping, I’ll need help big time.”

Angie smiled at that. The thought made Will smile too, as much as it scared him to acknowledge how quickly Sophie was growing up. He liked knowing that Angie and Graham would still be in him and Sophie’s lives, no matter how far in the future. He watched Graham and Sophie sitting together across the room, giggling over their yogurt. No doubt exchanging stories about their days and their ridiculous parents. He couldn’t ask for a better friend for his daughter.

Around nine, people started heading home. First Poppy and Rory, then Douglas and the twins, and then Miggy, who had no reason to even be at Yogurt Spot in the first place. Angie and Will parted ways after planning to take the kids out for pizza the next night. A little celebration for their kids, who were becoming more grown up and awesome by the day.

On the drive home, Graham was full of stories about his day.

“It was so fun, Mom! I can’t wait to go back there and go skating with you. The music is popping, and the nacho cheese is hot! And Will and Douglas answered all my questions.”

“That’s great Graham. I’m glad you had fun with them. And listen my dude, our house is almost back to being livable, so just please try not to snoop through any more of Douglas’s stuff for the next couple weeks. We’re in the home stretch here bud.”

Graham smiled.

“Okay, Mom.”

She put Graham to bed, tucking him under his blanket as he curled up on the wooden bench of the Douglas’s sauna (God, she could not wait to get out of here), and headed to the living room to watch TV. There was no sign of Douglas or the girls, so she assumed they were in bed. Quietly, she poured herself a glass of wine from the kitchen, picking a mostly full bottle so Douglas wouldn’t notice if a little was missing.

His giant fancy TV had hundreds of channels, but she ended up finding a re-run of an old “Joust” episode and settling for that. It was the first episode of season four, “Stegasus War.” One of her favorites. Every time she watched this episode (and she re-watched this show a lot), it reminded her of Will. They’d first started watching the show together right before this episode came out, getting together nearly every night to binge episodes. Their kids had loved all the pizza dinners and playdates, and Will and Angie both loved spending time together... it had been perfect. And Angie… well, she had been starting to wonder if maybe she had feelings for this big goofy marshmallow of a man. It certainly felt like things were headed that way. They’d both been single for a little while, and some tiny part of her brain thought maybe there was a future there. But she’d known how messy it could be with their kids and everything, so she’d mostly ignored it. Besides, she’d reasoned to herself, it wasn’t like either of them was looking to date anyone else right now.

But then Will had started dating Tracy. The first time Will brought her up to Angie, she’d stayed calm and said all the right things, encouraging him to go for it before she even had time to question if that’s what she’d wanted to say. The first night he went out with Tracy, Angie watched the kids, and even though he’d given her permission to watch Joust without him, Angie couldn’t bring herself to do it. 

Suddenly Will’s evenings became a lot less free. Angie had tried to be supportive—No, Angie had been very supportive, but as the premiere date for season four approached, they had six episodes left to watch, and he just kept blowing her off. 

Angie still remembered Will showing up at her house that night of the season premiere. She’d been annoyed at him, and at herself for being jealous, because she knew she shouldn’t be. She’d spent the entire day asking herself why she cared so much. Asking herself if she wanted to be the person going with Will on all those dates, or if maybe she was just jealous because she missed time with her friend. Wondering if it was weird to have a friend over at your house every night for basically a month, just because you guys like the same show. She’d asked, “What, so we just walk into each other’s houses now?” as if to highlight for him how weird their boundaries were.

But he’d brought turkey legs, and he’d apologized, and they’d had just enough time to finish season three before the new episode came out. And Angie had deftly swept all those jealous, confusing thoughts under the rug. Her little crush, or whatever it was, had been imagined. She had simply misread the friendship, and gotten caught up in temporary emotions. And anyway, she decided she could deal with a little less Will time in her life if it meant he had a happy relationship.

But now Will had been dating Tracy for six months, and she still missed their constant TV nights. She couldn’t deny that it bugged her just a little bit every time he asked her to babysit so he could go out on a date. She couldn’t ignore the fact that she’d avoided Tracy for so long because she’d decided she didn’t like the woman, despite never having talked to her. Just because she was dating Will.

Even with her masterful denial and avoidance skills, it had been a hard six months for Angie. Heck, it was a hard year for a lot of reasons! Seeing Graham’s father for the first time since he abandoned her, her house burning down… A stressful Thanksgiving, after which Angie spent the week avoiding Will just so that she could keep from thinking about Tracy and her stupid secrets. And today, when Sophie had dumped all of her stolen belongings out on the table, Angie had just felt gutted. Because she knew she’d let Will down, and that was the last thing on earth she wanted to do. And then there was Graham, going on about how Will was his mighty oak, and Will, insisting that he could help Angie with “fatherly duties?” And when she got to Yogurt Spot, she went right to find Will, because of course she did, because they always found each other first. And it was all these little moments, and things that Angie brushed off because they were friends, or because they were parents.

But even Angie, master of denial, couldn’t stave it off any longer. When the show cut to commercial just before the bloody Stegasus battle scene, she flipped the TV off and laid down on the couch, staring at the ceiling.

Angie's phone buzzed on the coffee table next to her. She knew it was from him, because literally no one else would think to text her at 11:16pm on a Tuesday night.

It was a photo, a ridiculous looking selfie of Will in his kitchen, holding a scrap of paper that read "Free garlic knots with order of large pizza!" He sent a text underneath that read "Forgot I had this coupon we can use tomorrow. You better show up hungry D'Amato :):)"

This was the text equivalent of those stupid pants he had that unzipped into shorts; he always did things in the dorkiest dad way possible. And yet she was grinning like an idiot, and wishing he was here now to watch with her.

“Oh, D’amato,” she whispered out loud to herself, burying her head in one Douglas's fancy couch pillows. “What have you gotten yourself into?”


	3. Want you all to myself (2x10, Good holidays to you)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode 2x10, Good Holidays to You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting from Will's perspective and moving to Angie's, this takes chapter follows our favorite goofballs through the events of Good Holidays to You, when Graham wants to see snow and they rent a cabin for the weekend. There was SO much I wanted to include in this chapter, but I ended up trimming it down so it wasn't crazy long.

When Will had booked a cabin for the weekend with Angie and Graham, this isn’t what he’d been imagining. He’d imagined the kids playing in the snow, Angie gratefully thanking him for making Graham’s wish come true (and maybe even admitting what a great weatherman he was), and everyone enjoying Will’s homemade hot chocolate.

He hadn’t imagined sitting in a jail holding cell with his best friend and their kids as they waited for Douglas to come bail them out after they stole a three thousand dollar snow machine. Nope, not what Will had been thinking.

If he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t sure if he’d been thinking at all when he came up with this plan. It had all started when Angie had interrupted his annual cookie decorating day, when he made pan after pan of sugar cookies and entertained himself making enough dessert to feed a village. He did this every Christmas, and then he and Sophie would box up the cookies and deliver them to their friends. Angie had come storming into his house (because by now the two of them were way past knocking on each other’s doors), freaking out about Graham’s Christmas wish for snow, and Will, ever the problem solver, had jumped into action, insisting that as KZOP’s preeminent alternate weather man, he could find them some winter weather.

Angie waited impatiently as he pulled out his work computer, scanning the area for any possibility of snowstorms. The forecast didn't look promising, but there was one spot, an hour and a half away in Lake Arrowhead, with a 40% chance of snow on Friday night.

The normal, rational version of Will the Weatherman would have known that this prediction, three days out, in California, was probably unlikely. But all he wanted to do was make Angie happy, and all other logic was apparently out the window. So, banking on the fact that Angie wouldn’t even bother trying to look at the radar on his computer, he proudly declared that there was an onding coming to Lake Arrowhead, insisted that they book a cabin, and prayed to the weather gods that there would be snow when they got there.

It all happened so fast, and Angie seemed so relieved, giving him a hug and thanking him again before heading home (taking with her a Tupperware full of his Christmas cookies). Will sat at his counter, smoothing frosting over his little snowman cookies and grinning giddily to himself. It had been too long since he’d spent some quality time with Angie (okay, there was last week when they took the kids out for pizza, and the week before, when they had a Margarita and Netflix night, but this was different), and he was excited!

The only small snag in the plan had been later that afternoon, when Tracy called. Will was back at his kitchen counter after picking Sophie up from school, now decorating his famous white chocolate snowflake cookies when his phone rang.

“Hey hon! Listen I’m off work all weekend and I know you are too, think you can get a sitter for Friday night? There’s a new Italian place in town we have to try.” Tracy sounded rushed, her voice muffled. Will looked at the clock; 5:45. She was probably just finishing up her hair and makeup before the six o’clock news.

“Oh gosh Tracy, I’m so sorry, I can’t this weekend,” Will sputtered, kicking himself for not thinking of this issue sooner. “I’m totally busy with Sophie.” He could hear the disappointment in Tracy’s voice as she replied.

“Oh, it’s just that we haven’t gotten to go on a real date in almost a month. One of us always has work, or something comes up with Sophie…”

“I know, and I’m really sorry Tracy. I promise you, next weekend is all yours. Well I’m not free on Friday night because Sophie and I are hosting a sleepover to celebrate the season finale of Sir Bridger, that ridiculous British TV show she loves. But besides that I am totally free.”

There was a long pause on Tracy’s end.

“What are you doing this weekend that’s so important anyway?”

Will felt his heart skip as his brain flew into panic mode. Tracy would NOT like that he was spending the weekend with Angie again. They’d had a whole long conversation about it after Thanksgiving, Tracy insisting that Angie was unhealthily dependent on Will. Which was totally not true, Will insisted. Before his brain even had time to formulate a logical plan, he heard himself speak.

“Oh, just taking Sophie to visit my parents. Just something we do every couple months, no big deal.” 

“Oh, well, I don’t suppose you’d want me to… maybe come with you guys? I’d love to meet your parents.” The hopefulness in her voice broke Will’s heart.

Crap. He’d really steered this in the wrong direction.

“Well, they only have the one twin bed in the guess room and all, and anyway they’ll be down here next week for their anniversary party, so you can meet them then.” Without giving Tracy time to respond, he held the phone away from his mouth and called “What Sophie? Oh, sorry Tracy, Sophie’s calling for me, gotta go!”

“Oh, okay--”

Will hung up before she could finish her sentence, dropping his phone on the counter and hanging his head in his hands. So stupid. Why had he even lied? Would Tracy really care that he was taking the weekend to be with Sophie? No, but there was someone she would care about: Angie. This hadn’t been a problem until Thanksgiving! But whatever the two of them had said to each other, it had resulted in Tracy leaving Douglas’s house early. When he asked about it, Tracy just said, “Will, just because Angie and I both get along with you, doesn’t mean we have to be best friends with each other.” And that was true, but Will felt like there was more to it than that. And some instinctive part of him knew that she wouldn’t be happy about him renting a cabin with Angie for the weekend.

“Dad?”

Sophie poked her head into the room from around the corner.

“Hey Soph, wanna help me decorate cookies? I promised Angie we’d swing by and drop some off tonight.”

“Dad I thought we were going to find snow this weekend with Graham and Angie,” she said quizzically, planting her hands on her hips.

“We are, and I for one am very excited. I can teach you and Graham all about reading weather maps and--”

“But that’s not what you just said to Tracy.”

Crap. Crap crap CRAP. If only his daughter weren’t a tiny genius who could always tell when she was being lied to.

“Well, Soph, you are right. I didn’t tell Tracy that because… because, well, there isn’t room for her at the cabin, and I didn’t want her feelings to be hurt.”

“She couldn’t share a room with you? Isn’t that what boyfriends and girlfriends do?”

“Uh, yep, but um… I couldn’t invite her because…”

There was a moment of silence that felt like eternity as Sophie stared him down with narrowed eyes.

“I couldn’t invite her because Angie doesn’t like Tracy. They don’t get along.”

Angie was totally gonna kill him for this.

“Really? Because they got along great at Thanksgiving,” Sophie questioned. She thought for a moment, and then Will saw a lightbulb go off in her head. She grinned. “Actually, that makes total sense. I believe you. Now what kind of cookies are we decorating?”

Will took the win, not sure exactly what part of his lie had convinced her. The two finished icing the last tray of cookies and spent the evening munching on holiday desserts as they packaged up boxes of cookies for all their friends.

In the back of Will’s mind, he’d known this entire plan was risky. He didn’t even know if there would be snow. He had lied to his girlfriend about his plans, and he knew Angie was never gonna pay him back for the cabin rental, so why was he even doing this?

Because in all honesty, all Will cared about was making Angie happy. He just didn’t have the time right now to wonder why exactly that was.

They were only in mountain jail for a couple hours, but Angie came out of her prison time a changed woman. Sitting there with the kids as Will used their one phone call to frantically dial Douglas, she realized that her quest to give Graham the perfect Christmas had ended up ruining their entire weekend. She’d wasted Will’s time and money just because she was afraid to give Graham the thing on his list that he really wanted: to meet his father. 

Luckily Sophie and Graham didn’t seem too disturbed by the day’s events; Graham was chatting with a heavily pregnant lady dressed in what looked like a sexy Santa costume, and Sophie was watching as a drunk looking rough-shaven guy in his twenties dragged a plastic fork along the metal bars of the cell.

“Hey Angie!” Sophie called. “This guy is teaching me how to turn a plastic fork into a really sharp knife!”

"The key is to use the concrete as a sharpener," the guy added helpfully.

“Okay,” Angie cut him off, snapping out of her self-pitying thoughts. “Sophie, Graham, why don’t you guys just come over and sit by me until Will gets back, okay?”

“Whatever,” Sophie sighed, joining Angie on the holding cell’s concrete bench. “But that trick could’ve really come in handy in the lunchroom one of these days.”

One of the two cops that had arrested them escorted Will back to the holding cell.

“I still don’t see why I’m being locked up; I am innocent of all crimes!” He called indignantly after the officer. When he got no response, Will huffed his way over to join Angie and the kids.

“So how was the phone call?” Sophie asked. “Did Douglas pick up?”

“Yep. He's on the way. Actually, he didn’t seem very surprised at all.”

“Probably because both of you have been falling into a pattern of illegal activity lately!” Sophie replied back, raising her eyebrows as if to invite a challenge.

“Yeah,” Graham added. “Will told me it was okay that we stole our skates from the roller rink because we were having ‘an emotional day.’”

“And Angie, you told me it was okay to sample from the bulk food bins at the grocery store!”

Angie and Will caught each other’s eyes sheepishly. Perhaps they hadn’t been doing the best at passing on morals to their kids lately.

“Guys, it’s all my fault,” Angie insisted. “Not Will’s. I’m the one who thought we could find snow in California in the first place, and trusted an alternate weatherman from a local new station to get us there.”

Will opened his mouth to protest, but instead crossed his arms, sulking.

“And I shouldn’t have stolen the snow machine. Please don’t learn from my delinquency.”

“It’s okay Mom,” Graham said, leaning over to give her a hug. “I’m glad my first jail experience is with you. Plus, this’ll be a great story to tell all the kids at school!”

Will and Angie locked eyes in silent panic as they both imagined what Ms. Pronstroller and the other parents at school would have to say.

“Hey kids, wanna learn how to make a shiv?” the drunk guy asked from his corner of the cell.

“Okey doke,” Will jumped in. “I think I’m just going to cover your ears now Sophie and let’s hope this is all over with soon.”

The rest of the gang came to the rescue soon, bringing with them pizza from the nearby town. Everyone managed to squeeze into Douglas’s car, and they all headed back to the cabin. There may not have been any snow, but Angie was relieved to have the whole gang together. Will occupied the kids making popcorn garlands for the purple Christmas trees that Douglas had been forced to buy (Angie had promised to venmo him of course), and Douglas had had the foresight to bring along a couple bottles of wine which the adults shared.

She even managed to pull Graham aside and give him the honest truth about his dad. Graham was thrilled, and Angie watched him run to tell Sophie, because of course he would tell her first. Angie couldn’t help but wonder for the thousandth time why this was so difficult for her. Sometimes, she reasoned to herself, when you really love someone, you just want them all to yourself.

The sudden discovery that it was snowing was really icing on top of the cake. Graham noticed it first and called everyone to the window, and all the kids scrambled to grab their jackets and gloves. It had been a long time since Angie had seen snow, and the magic wasn’t lost on her. The thought occurred to her that of course it was gonna snow; Will Cooper had never let her down before.

They piled outside, the kids crowding around Miggy as he taught them how to make snowballs and snow angels. He really was a kid just like them. Poppy and Douglas were off in their own little world making gross cheesy googly eyes at each other, and Angie and Will found a spot on the covered porch, Angie holding baby Jack.

“Will, I owe you a million thanks,” she told him. “You really are a great weatherman.”

She could see his smile in the dim light that streamed through the cabin windows.

“Thanks, Angie.”

They stood there for a few minutes, watching the kids play. The twins managed to get a snowball fight going, while Sophie and Rory entertained themselves making a little snowman. Graham was gleeful, tripping over his own feet as he tried to catch snowflakes on his tongue. It occurred to Angie that this really was the happiest she’d ever seen her son on Christmas. And she owed it to all to Will.

“Oh, by the way,” she told him, “I venmoed you for the cabin. Four hundred dollars.”

Will turned to look at her in astonishment.

“You paid me for the whole thing? You only owed me for half of it! Not that you really owed me at all. It was no big deal.”

“No, Will, it was a big deal. You made Graham’s Christmas wish come true. Both of them, actually. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the courage to be honest with him. Not to mention I got us thrown in jail today. Paying for the cabin is the least I can do.”

He smiled at her.

“Angie, getting to spend time with you and Graham—even if we’re committing grand larceny—is me and Sophie’s favorite thing to do. You never need to pay me back. Although we should probably start behaving better around the kids.”

Angie chuckled in agreement.

“Hey,” Will continued, “So next week I’m hosting a big party for my parents’ fortieth anniversary. Things are a little rocky with them right now because of the whole ‘my dad was cheating on my mom with the health teacher for years’ situation, and--”

“You want some emotional support?” Angie finished for him. “Just name the time and the place, I’ll be there.”

And that was probably the moment when logically, Angie knew they were treading dangerously close to the line. Lately she’d been making a lot of justifications about this line. Will inviting Angie and Graham over for dinner three nights in a row? “That’s normal friend stuff,” she’d tell herself. Will’s parents calling her every few weeks just to catch up? “Totally normal, everybody’s parents just love me,” she quietly insisted. But something about how easily he invited her to this anniversary party, and how she already knew she’d get there early to help set up and stay until the end, and probably spend the evening at his house helping him eat leftovers—But she didn’t have time to think about this now.

Will opened his mouth to say something else, but Miggy cut them off by calling everyone together for a group photo. When he texted the picture to everyone, Angie had to agree, it was the best holiday photo she’d ever had.

With all the excitement, it took a while to get the kids to bed. The cabin had three rooms with two twin beds each; Douglas and Poppy claimed one for themselves, Miggy and Will split another, and Angie and Graham took the third. They managed to fit the rest of the kids on the two foldout couches. Angie sat on Graham’s bed with him until he fell asleep, telling him more about his dad, and gently breaking the news that he was not in fact a blueberry scientist from Greece. Eventually Graham passed out, clutching his stuffed lion, and Angie quietly extracted herself from his arms and padded quietly out to the kitchen to grab some water.

Tiptoeing carefully through the living room in the dark, she saw the sleeping faces of the kids, which made her smile. The twins slept with their arms around each other. Rory had on a fancy cashmere sleep mask, because of course he would sleep in style.

Angie crept to the kitchen and flicked on the light, grabbing a glass and turning on the tap. As she spun around to leave the room, she nearly bumped into Sophie who had somehow materialized behind her.

“Jesus Sophie!” Angie whisper yelled. “You scared the crap out of me! Why are you up?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Sophie whispered back. “Prison flashbacks, you know?”

Angie smiled despite herself. This girl was brilliant at making up excuses.

“Angie, I wanted to say thank you,” Sophie said. “For making sure Tracy didn’t come with us on this trip.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Dad’s not a very good liar, so I figured it out. Tracy called him the other day and asked if he was free this weekend, but he told her we were visiting my grandparents. I was confused, but when I asked him why he lied, he said it was because you don’t like Tracy”

Sophie paused for a minute, her eyes searching Angie’s as if to make sure Angie was keeping up with the story.

“Angie, I know you just told him that because you knew I wouldn’t want Tracy coming on the trip. You were protecting me from having to tell Dad that it’s me who doesn’t like her. And that was really nice of you.”

Sophie wrapped her arms around Angie’s waist in a hug. Angie set her water glass down on the counter perhaps a bit too forcefully, trying to process what Sophie had said. Will thought that Angie didn’t like Tracy? And he was willing to LIE to Tracy if it made Angie happy? Or the other possibility was that Will was the one who didn’t want Tracy coming along this weekend, so he made the whole story up? None of it made sense, but the thought that Will had planned this trip for only him and Angie, and left Tracy out of it, filled her with a spiteful and triumphant feeling. And, if she was being honest, it made her feel a little giddy.

As Sophie said goodnight and padded back to bed, Angie rummaged through the fridge to find the last of the wine. She desperately needed a drink.


	4. Would you like to go out on a second date? (2x11 The Angie-man)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All of Angie and Will's angsty feelings after they admit how easy it was to pretend date each other. Starts from Angie's perspective before the party, and follows with Will's perspective after the party, later that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had ten thousand ideas for this chapter, so it took a lot of editing to make into something cohesive. Sorry if it's a little jumbled, I just had SO MANY things to fit in, because this was arguably the most important Angie/Will episode of the entire series so far.

The weeks following New Years were the worst, Angie decided. The holiday high was over, and now it was back to real life. From Thanksgiving up until December 31st, her days had been filled with holiday cookies (mostly stolen from Will’s house), Christmas parties (hosted by Will), and inordinate amounts of Peppermint Schnapps (Will was a sucker for anything peppermint flavored, and they'd had more than a few Christmas movie nights). And lots of time with Will. If Angie were being honest with herself and addressing her feelings—which she wasn’t, because ew—She’d probably have realized sooner that she and Will had used every possible holiday themed excuse to spend time together. They would put the kids to bed and then stay up late watching old Christmas movies or re-runs of Joust. They both had nights of the week when they were on babysitting duty for the whole group, but whenever Will was watching all the kids for the night, Angie usually managed to find a reason to end up at his house to help out, and vice versa.

And okay, fine, Angie was starting to worry that this was a problem. A “My heart beats faster when you walk into the room” sort of problem. A “I’ll drop pretty much anything to hang out with you” kind of problem. And, most troublingly, a “Tracy’s onto us and now you’re lying to her about us spending time together and I have feelings for you but you’re in a committed relationship and this will not end well” type problem. Ugh. Feelings. Angie’s least favorite word.

She had never ever been into soft, caring single dad type guys before. After all, she’d spent her early twenties catching rides on tour buses and crowd surfing at heavy metal concerts, throwing her bras onstage at cute bad boys who wore (by modern standards) an embarrassing amount of eyeliner and wore bracelets with silver spikes that young Angie thought were unbelievably hot. Heck, even when she was pregnant, Angie had spent her time in Vegas, making out with dudes at parties who said stupid stuff like “I’m traveling the world trying to find my inner rhythm,” or “I’m just gambling to make a little extra cash until my band really takes off.” Basically, Angie was not ashamed to admit, she’d been into a lot of guys in her time. But never single dads. She’d never dated one; didn’t have an interest in spending time with someone as consumed by the mundane tasks of childcare as she already was. Which was why this whole thing with Will just didn’t make sense. She hadn’t paid attention to all the warning signs because she’d assumed she’d be safe. Will talked constantly about carpool schedules and room parenting and what amount of educational screen time experts said was recommended for children ages 8-10, and Angie had just sort of assumed his whole dad vibe would keep their relationship in the safely platonic zone. But this was the unsafe, not platonic zone. This was the zone of “I kind of wish we could take the kids out for pizza, except the kids aren’t there and we go to a nice restaurant.” Nards. That sounded dangerously like a date.

Suddenly, a voice snapped Angie out of her thoughts. “Excuse me? Can I help you ma’am?”

Angie looked down the aisle of the CVS to where a stooped older lady wearing an employee vest stood.

“Oh, I’m all good, thank you,” Angie replied sheepishly.

“It’s just that you’ve been standing in this aisle for twenty minutes holding those two packages of paper plates in your hands.”

Angie looked down and sure enough, she was holding two set of paper plates. She’d been trying to decide whether blue or yellow would go better with Will’s party décor.

“I was worried you might be one of those people with narcolepsy who fall asleep standing up,” The CVS lady added.

“Yes okay, I’m fine, thank you…Henriette,” Angie said, reading the lady’s name tag. Henriette stood at the other end of the aisle, watching carefully as Angie finally decided to go with the blue plates, putting the other ones back and scurrying to the checkout.

Will had sent her out to get a couple last minute things for his parents’ fortieth anniversary party later that afternoon. Angie had agreed to help set up, even though she had a thousand other chores to do. She was willing to do it because she knew how important it was to him that his parents be together and happy, and besides, she wanted to eat some of Will’s delicious homemade party food. Especially those mini-grilled cheeses.

After making it out of the store, Angie sat in her car in the parking lot for a few minutes, wondering if she should even stay at Will's to help set up. She'd never been the best at hiding her feelings for people, and she didn't want to do anything stupid before she'd had a chance to calm down and shove all of these feelings into some dusty old box in the back of her brain.

Okay, so what. So she had an eensy teensy little crush on Will. She hated to admit it, but it was true. But why did it have to be a big deal? She could be chill! Will had Tracy, his super hot, tall, genius, weather expert girlfriend, and Angie had a big bottle of wine and three unwatched episodes of the Bachelor waiting at home. And she was totally totally cool with that. She’d drive over there, drop off the plates, help Will finish setting up, and then head home, like any normal friend would. And maybe she’d take a couple hours before Graham got home to have a little space; just to figure out what the heck was going on.

Will was Angie’s best friend in the world, and she did not want to be the reason his relationship was ruined, nor did Angie want to prove Tracy right by being too obvious about her feelings for Will. Angie was sure that if she could just get some space from Will for the day, she could logic her way out of this ridiculous crush.

Angie drove over to Will’s, already thinking up excuses in her head for ducking out before the party. She climbed the steps to the front door and was reaching for the knob when the door opened to reveal Will. He’d changed from the pajamas he’d been wearing when Angie stopped by to pick Sophie up for carpool this morning, into his favorite blue plaid shirt and cleaned up his beard.

Fuck he looked good.

He looked the kind of good that makes you just want to stop and stare for a minute (or ten). Luckily Will grabbed her arm and dragged her into the house before Angie could do anything embarrassing.

“Okay, we have a lot to get done and no time to do it. Can you make sure all the flower arrangements look good?” He disappeared into the kitchen before calling “I’m just worried the floral company didn’t get the ratio of roses to carnations right!”

“Dude, everything looks perfect!” Angie insisted. She glanced over at a huge vase of fresh flowers balanced on the coffee table. It looked light it had the right amount of roses, but then again what did she know about flowers. Will scurried back into the room with a tray full of cupcakes, setting them on the table and stepping back to inspect his work.

“Does this all look okay, Angie? Did I decorate enough? Do I look okay?”

“Yes, Will, you look… really good actually,” Angie replied. _Don’t make eye contact._ It was like she was dealing with freaking _Medusa_ ; look him in the eyes and she’d melt into a puddle. What was WRONG with her?? What was wrong with HIM, being all cute and handsome and—ugh, Angie needed to get out of here before she did anything idiotic.

She helped him adjust the flower arrangements, and when Will asked if he could stay for the party, Angie quickly declined, trying to sound as natural as possible. Too couple-y, and anyway she’d just seen his parents a few weeks ago when they came to visit.

Of course, the universe had other plans for her, because before she could make her escape, Will’s parents arrived, begging her to stay. Even as Angie allowed Will to hand her a glass of champagne and a plate of mini pizzas as a thank you, Angie felt her stomach tighten with a sense of foreboding. This would not end well.

After dinner, Will’s dad took Sophie upstairs to read her a bedtime story. Will dumped the dirty dishes in the sink to deal with later, grabbed the entire pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream from the freezer, and went outside to sit on the porch. It wasn’t exactly warm out, but he needed some air. It was 9pm, right about the time he usually called Angie and put her on speakerphone while he cleaned the living room, packed Sophie’s lunch for the next day, or folded laundry. Calling her, talking to her every day had become such a habit in Will’s life, and her absence as his best friend was felt even though they’d just spent the entire afternoon together.

Will sat on the porch steps, eating his ice cream and wishing this entire day could be over. He’d hurt Tracy, who’d declined to stay for dinner, telling Will she needed to think some things over. He’d hurt Angie, who apparently didn’t want to be his friend anymore. And he’d let down his parents, who were probably going to get divorced.

Will heard the back door open behind him, and turned to see his mom in her pajamas. She gave him a small smile and held up spoon she’d brought with her, coming to sit down next to him. Will passed her the ice cream to share.

“I never could resist mint chocolate chip,” Lucy chuckled. She put the carton down between them and turned to look at Will. “Honey, I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.”

“Oh.” Will wasn’t sure how he was doing, but it was somewhere on the “bad” side of the spectrum. “I don’t know, not great I guess.”

“What is it Hon? Is it me and your dad? Because you know whatever happens in our relationship isn’t your fault.”

“Well, whatever happens is at least partially my fault, Mom. I was the one who found that note from Mrs. Hawthorne in my old textbook, and then lied to you about dating Angie so that you’d stay together. I’ve just been making things worse.”

“Sweetie, if me and your father’s relationship was so easily destroyed by you and Angie’s lie, then it wasn’t a very good relationship to begin with. And your father choosing to cheat on me has nothing to do with you.”

“I just feel like I’m ruining everything today. Sorry, I know you have a lot to deal with right now. I don’t mean to ramble. It’s just…”

“You normally call Angie about this sort of thing,” Lucy finished. She put a hand on his shoulder. “I know. Any time we try to call you these days we get the busy signal because you’re on the phone with her.”

“And Tracy sometimes.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true. But I get the sense that you talk to Angie about your big problems.”

“Well I can’t talk to her now, because she doesn’t even want to be friends anymore. She said we should do a best friend trial separation.”

“Well why did she say that?” Lucy’s eyes widened. “She _did_ know about Tracy, right? Oh goodness, Will, did she think you were really dating?”

“What? No! She knew it was fake, she knows we’re just friends. She said we need to take a break for Tracy’s sake. And for the sake of…everything, I guess.”

“Oh.” Will could hear the disappointment in his mother’s voice. She’d asked earlier why Angie hadn’t stayed for dinner. “Will, Honey? Is that what you want?”

“No, of course not. Angie’s my best friend. I can’t imagine not spending time with her. But I think Tracy agrees with her. She’s pretty angry about today.”

“Well, we’re also a little angry about today, Hon. I mean, you did lie to us.”

“I know, and I’m really sorry. I just totally panicked. It’s like…I guess I’m afraid of things changing from how they are right now.”

The two of them sat there for a minute, scooping spoonfuls from the ice cream between them.

“Will?” Lucy said, putting down her spoon to give her son her full attention.

“Yeah Mom?”

“Are you okay with giving up spending time with Angie if it means being with Tracy? Or do you think it might be the other way around?”

All that ice cream suddenly wasn’t sitting so well in Will’s stomach.

Lucy let him off the hook by continuing.

“You know, I meant what I said earlier today. About how inspiring it is, the way you two communicate and support each other. You help take care of each other’s kids, you help each other through challenges—I mean, she agreed to be your fake girlfriend for goodness’s sake, and only a really good friend would be willing to do that. Whether you’re dating or not, you two have one of the best relationships I’ve ever seen. And I still admire that, even if you’re with Tracy.”

“Thanks Mom. And I meant what _I_ said too. Angie’s my best friend, and my friendship with her is inspiring to me. But I’m with Tracy. I can’t make any more big life changes right now. I can’t risk anything else."

The words came out of his mouth so easily that it took Will a moment to process what he’d said. Before Lucy even spoke, Will felt his heart drop. Lucy had a way of getting Will to express things he didn’t even realize he’d felt. Maybe he was learning too much from Angie about pushing down his emotions.

“Will.” Lucy shifted to face directly towards him, taking Will’s hands in hers. “Fear of taking risks or making things complicated isn’t a reason to stay with someone. The only reason to be with someone is because you love them. I know you’re afraid of things changing—Like me and your father divorcing. But sometimes, you gotta break some eggs to make an omelet. And Will, you know the thing I want most for you in the world is for you to be happy. But I also don’t want you to hurt others. Don’t make the same mistake your father did. Don’t keep stringing these two women along just because you’re unsure. Decide what you really want to say to them.”

There was a long pause. Will wasn’t sure if he was supposed to speak. Didn’t even know how he could respond.

“Right,” Lucy continued resolutely. “Well, your father and I have some talking to do that I am not looking forward to. Will, Honey, thank you for hosting us such a lovely party today. I’m so lucky to have a son who turned out so great.”

Lucy stood and gave Will a peck on the head before grabbing the ice cream and heading inside. Will sat alone on the porch.

_Decide what you really want to say to them._

What did he want to say? All that Will could hear ringing in his head was his own voice from earlier in the afternoon.

_“I love you. Would you like to go out on a second date?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm working on the next few chapters during the "best friend trial separation now," which will be interesting since there's no Angie/Will plots in the show to work off of. If you have any feedback or suggestions, or ideas about what you want to see in upcoming chapters, please leave comments! I was feeling really stuck on this fic today, but seeing so many comments and kudos was really motivating, so know that your feedback is super duper appreciated :)


	5. Movie night (2x12, Welcome to Hilltop)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Events take place one week after Welcome to Hilltop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me and this chapter... were not getting along today. Sorry if it's a little choppy, I re-worked it a zillion times. It's a lot harder to write for Will and Angie when they don't talk at all the entire episode!

It was less than two weeks into their best friend trial separation, and Angie was already miserable. She’d had a whole plan! She had feelings for Will, and because she happened to also be best friends with him, those feelings were hard to hide. In the moment, it had seemed smart, cutting herself off from him for a while, giving them both a break. That had been her strategy for every other problem she’d faced in life; throw it away and forget about it. But Will wasn’t so easily tossed aside. Primarily because their lives were already so intertwined.

Graham had noticed something was up right away.

“Mom, why are you ordering takeout? It’s Wednesday, that’s usually when we eat with Sophie and Will.”

“Well Bud, we’re going to put a pause on Wednesday dinners for right now. You know, there’s just a lot of takeout places that you and I haven’t tried yet, and all Will and Sophie ever want to order is pizza.” 

“Mom, all of those menus in front of you are from pizza restaurants. When Will ordered us salads last week you told him he was discriminating against us Italians.”

Dammit, when did her kid get so smart?

“Are we still going to have Friday movie nights?” Graham asked.

“Well, I’m gonna drop you off at their house for Friday movie night this week, but I can’t stay.”

“Why? It’s your turn to pick this week! You said you were gonna make us all watch “Joust,” and Will said it was too bloody for me and Sophie, so you made us promise to cover our eyes during the fight scenes. Remember?”

“Yeah, well if Will won’t let you guys watch Joust, then I don’t want to go to the movie night.”

Graham rolled his eyes.

“You and Will fight about the most ridiculous things, Mom. In school last week we learned about using ‘I’ statements to solve disagreements. Maybe you should try that.” He shrugged and left Angie to her takeout menus.

Now it was Friday evening. Graham was at Will and Sophie’s for movie night, and Angie was at her kitchen table, attempting to write an email she’d been putting off for the last couple weeks. The last time she’d tried to write an email to Graham’s dad, it had taken an entire summer. But Angie was determined to follow through on this. It meant a lot to Graham, so it meant a lot to her. But all of Angie’s fears about losing Graham kept bubbling up inside of her. Maybe it was because she’d just lost one of the most important guys in her life that she was terrified of losing the other. Angie wasn’t good at thinking through things like this, and it was especially hard because she couldn’t tell Poppy.

The Friday before, when Angie had met Miggy and Poppy at the Winebrary, she’d been one breath away from telling Poppy everything. Her feelings for Will, how they’d lied and pretending to be together, and how they’d ended up putting pause on their friendship. She’d just felt so lonely. There was nobody she got along with better than Will, and Miggy not liking her amazing pun about hats had been the last emotional straw.

Poppy always gave the best advice, and Angie desperately needed that, even if Poppy was also a total gossip who would immediately tell Douglas and Miggy. But Angie had been cut off by Sharon barging in and announcing her pregnancy, sending Poppy into an emotional tailspin. Angie had spent the weekend being the mature, advice giving friend that Poppy needed, convincing herself that her own problems with Will were no big deal. 

Angie had even tried downloading Big Bed as a distraction, but she’d never been the type of person to use dating apps, and she managed to find something wrong with every single person she scrolled by on the app. There was a guy whose career was listed as “vending machine technician,” or the dude who listed his favorite pastime as quilt making. Even as she grumpily deleted the app off her phone, Angie knew it had been a lost cause to begin with. She liked Will, and no amount of distraction could stop that from being true. And Will didn’t check any of the boxes that Angie used to think were essential in a person she’d want to date. If she’d seen him on a dating app three years ago, she’d have scrolled on by. And that was what made all of this so infuriating. He was a big, goofy soft dad, totally different from anyone Angie had ever dated, and yet he was all she could think about. Becoming a mom had made her go soft, and at some point “good father” had rocketed to the top of the list of Angie’s turn-ons. 

Her life would be so much easier if she could simply cross Will off the list as an ineligible partner and go back to being his best friend.

Angie groaned, totally stuck on this stupid email, and distracted wondering if she’d done the right thing by skipping out on movie night. She tried to imagine what Poppy would say right now. If Angie could be Poppy for a day, certainly she could muster up some advice for herself.

“Angie, do you really have feelings for Will?” she pictured Poppy saying.

“Yes,” Angie said out loud to herself. “I do.”

“Permission to enter Bitch Mode?” imaginary Poppy asked.

“Sure.”

“Well I don’t know why the heck Will’s still with Tracy when your hot piece of ass is on the market. And frankly, Tracy totally sucks. Also by the way that spy glass you were using the other day was super cool, I bought one too so we can do double spying on our future buddy cop trips!”

Hmm, okay maybe this wasn’t exactly what Poppy would say right now. Angie was having a hard time staying in character.

She looked at her computer screen. The email was a little shorter than it needed to be. So far, the draft read:

Dear Derek,

Reading it over, Angie decided it was all wrong. “Dear”?! She didn’t want Derek to think she was in love with him again! Angie closed her laptop and emptied the half full wine glass sitting next to her. She’d been at this for two hours, and the email was two words long. This was impossible. 

“You know Angie,” fake Poppy said in Angie’s head, “If you let Derek back into Graham’s life, you’re gonna lose him just like I’m losing Rory. He’ll end up with a half sister and a whole other family that you just can’t be a part of. Keep Derek away as long as you can.”

That sounded a little harsher that real Poppy would probably be, but Angie got the point. Resolutely, she shut her laptop, poured another glass of wine, and stationed herself on the couch. Kevin and Kerry Kitchen were on TV putting new backsplash into someone’s ancient kitchen from the 1950’s. The perfect distraction. She’d seen this episode before, it was a classic. Without thinking, Angie grabbed her phone from the couch beside her to text Will.

I’m watching that Mr. and Mrs. Kitchen episode where they convert an old barn lol

Without thinking she added,

I’m surprised they’re even still airing this show after Kevin got sued by that pizza delivery boy…

It was only after she’d hit send and put her phone back down that Angie realized what she’d done.

Shit.

Of course she’d managed to mess this whole “not talking” thing up! Texting Will was just muscle memory, and it had totally slipped her mind.

“Crap crap crap,” she muttered to herself, grabbing the phone and frantically tapping on the text, like maybe she could somehow find a way to delete it?? 

Stupid Angie. Even when she was trying to avoid him, it was like an unbreakable habit.

Angie reached for her wine glass but it was empty again. The show cut to commercial and she turned it off, burying her face in her hands. After a few seconds she peeked out from between her fingers to see if her screen was lit with a response text.

Nothing.

She felt like a middle schooler who’d accidentally sent a text to her crush. Angie knew she should probably send another text, or call, or maybe just drive over to pick up Graham and talk to Will in person. But instead she just sat on her couch, staring at her phone and waiting for a response.

Will had known that Angie probably wouldn’t join them for movie night, which was unfortunate for a lot of reasons. Primarily, because he was out-voted by the kids on the choice of movie, which is why they were re-watching Toy Story 4 for the third time in as many weeks. And yes, Will still teared up a little at the end every time, he wasn’t a monster, but he had to admit, watching kids movies was a lot less fun when he wasn’t sitting around drinking wine with Angie. He’d thought of inviting Tracy tonight, but knew she wouldn’t want to sit around in his living room all evening. Unfortunately, she wasn’t super excited to hang out with Sophie and the other kids all the time, and that was what Will liked spending most of his time doing.

The kids were on the edge of their seats watching Woody be reunited with Bo Peep. Will felt a new sympathy for Woody, he thought bitterly to himself. He knew what it was like to be cut off from a best friend for so long. 

So much had happened this week that Will wanted to tell Angie about. Sophie had gone from Greta Thunberg to lying sociopath in the course of a day, and he was still reeling. He’d always thought that as his daughter got older, she’d get easier to understand and care for. But at least when she was wearing diapers and crying all day Will hadn’t had to worry about the moral and ethical dilemmas of bird murder. This kid was growing up so fast, and Will had no idea if he was doing things right. Did she steal Pete because she was an activist? Or because she’d been complicit in helping Angie and Will steal a snow machine last month and now thought thievery was the answer to everything? Sophie had such big questions for him now, about whether it’s okay to do something wrong even if your heart’s in the right place, and how to follow her moral compass.

Moral compasses kind of scared Will these days. Ever since his parents had left for home after their anniversary party, he’d had a lot of time to think. It had been over a month since Will had gone on a real date with Tracy. Sure, they shared rushed lunch breaks together at work, but besides that there was never time. She had a big reservation the next week at a breakfast place that she was thrilled about. They’d been talking about this romantic date for months, and dating for a year. A year into dating Mia, Will had asked her to move in with him. A year felt like a really important benchmark, after which things would only get more serious down the road, and Will wondered if the date might be his moment to end things with Tracy. If that was what he wanted. And even he didn’t know what he wanted right now.

“Hey Big Dubs, we’re getting a little low on popcorn over here,” Graham said, passing the empty bowl over. “Can you make more?”

“Sure bud.”

Will headed to the kitchen. Everything in there was kind of a mess right now. His silk screening setup covered the entire counter, and Sophie’s shelf of trophies was only halfway reassembled from earlier. As he dug through the snack cabinet for more popcorn, Will heard his phone buzz on the counter. Probably Douglas texting him with the official bill from the twins’ body disposal services for Pete. Will went to grab his phone, crossing his fingers it would be cheaper than the time he hired the twins to fix his sink last month.

But it wasn’t a text from Douglas. It was a text from Angie.

Kevin and Kerry are on! It’s that ridiculous one where they convert an old barn lol

The memory made him smile. He and Angie had a little dance they always did when the theme song to Mr. and Mrs. Kitchen came on.

No whinin’, no bitchin’, pick up a hammer, get your butt in the kitchen!

Will stood looking at the text for a minute, trying to decode it as if it were in another language. Which it kind of was. What did this mean? Was it her trying to end the best friend separation? Or maybe she was just trying to keep things cool between them, so it wouldn’t be too awkward? It was true, their once constantly active text chats had gone dormant over the last couple of weeks. But this didn’t make things less weird.

He could respond, but with what? What Will wanted to say was “When the movie’s over I’ll bring the kids over to your place and we can watch together!” Or maybe he should respond cool and aloof, with a simple “cool.”

The fact that he couldn’t just bring the kids over to her place was the worst part. Right now, Will felt like he spent every single moment of his life trying to hold things together and keep them from changing. His daughter was growing up too fast, he could see his relationship starting to fall apart, his parents were divorced, Pete was dead, and he’d lost Angie. And, based on his experience in the past doing a “trial separation” with Mia, Will was terrified this could all end in friend divorce. He wanted to text her back, and he wanted everything to go back to normal. 

Will unlocked his phone and texted her back, gritting his teeth as though he already knew he’d regret it.

Love that episode. The movie is almost over. I’ll bring Graham home around 9?

She responded back a moment later.

9 is good

Will let out a huge breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Good work, potentially awkward moment successfully navigated.

“Dad?”

Will turned around to see Sophie.

“We were wondering what the status is on the popcorn.”

“Oh, I kind of forgot about that,” Will replied, grabbing the un-popped bag and sticking it in the microwave.

Sophie sighed.

“You seem sad, Dad. Are you still thinking about that maroon suit that you don’t get to wear?”

“No, but I’ve already decided that next year I’m gonna try a forest green.”

“Dad, I’m eight years old and a girl, and even I know that forest green is not hot in men’s fashion right now.”

Will ignored this comment and knelt down to Sophie’s level.

“Honey, I promise I’m not sad. I’m just a little tired. And you’ve made me watch this movie so many times that it basically just puts me to sleep now.”

“Well hopefully Angie decides to show up next time so that you can’t be out-voted so easily,” Sophie replied flippantly. The microwave dinged, and Sophie grabbed the popcorn and trotted back to the living room. Will followed her, though he spent the rest of the movie staring at his phone screen, wondering if Angie would text anything else.

Graham and Sophie fell asleep on the couch before the movie ended, snuggled under the blankets. 

Will turned off the TV and sat watching the kids for a minute, unsure what to do. They were already in their PJ’s anyway, and on a normal night, Will would just send Angie a text offering to let Graham sleep over. But then she’d have to come over here in the morning to give him clothes for school, and usually when that happened, Will and Angie would drop the kids off and then grab coffee together, and all of that felt way beyond the rules of this best friend separation. So begrudgingly, Will nudged the kids awake and shepherded them out to the car.

Angie was waiting on the porch when they pulled up, and walked down the lawn to Will’s car as he parked on the curb. Will rolled down the window and she poked her head inside to see that the kids were sound asleep

“Hey, how did it go?” she whispered.

“All good, but I refuse to watch Toy Story anymore. Next time you’re hosting movie night so I can get a break from the kids movies.”

Angie gave him a small smile and went to the side door to get Graham.

“Graham buddy,” she said, ruffling his hair, “You’re home now, let’s get you to bed.”

As she led her son inside, Angie turned back to wave goodnight. And then they disappeared inside.

Will sat in his car. His chest felt hollow and he felt the tiniest sting of coming tears. Normally she would have stood at his car chatting with him. Joking about the movies the kids picked, telling him about the Mr. and Mrs. Kitchen episode, or even just climbing in the car with him so they could drive around the neighborhood and talk while the kids slept.

But she hadn’t done any of that.

Angie really and truly didn’t want to be friends with him anymore.

Will drove home listening to the soft sound of Sophie’s snores in the back seat.

Angie tucked Graham into bed, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before turning off the light.

“Mom?” he asked before she could reach the door.

“Yeah Bud?”

“I hope you join us for movie night next time. I love Will and Sophie, but I like hanging out with you the best.”

“I’ll do my best, I promise,” Angie responded, her heart wrenched with guilt. This friend separation wasn’t supposed to affect the kids. That was the last thing anyone wanted. But she and Will needed space, and maybe she and Graham needed something else to do together besides spend all their time with Will and Sophie. Heading out to the kitchen, she spotted her laptop on the table. She plopped herself down and decided it was time to actually write this email.

She’d been putting it off. Graham already had a mom in his life, and up until now, he’d had Will, who’d been more of a father figure to him than Derek. But Angie knew if she wanted to get over her co-dependence on Will, she couldn’t use him as the solution to all her problems. Graham deserved to have his real father in his life.


	6. "Oh." (2x13, Chunkies)

Angie woke up around 1am, sprawled across her bed, still fully dressed, with no memory of how she got there. The last thing she remembered was going to pour Graham a glass of water and struggling not to pass out from exhaustion.

She cracked an eye open and saw the soft glow of her bedside lamp. Her clock said 1am. With a groan, she managed to sit up. Her phone was on the night stand, along with a glass of water, a sleeve of saltine crackers, and a sticky note with a hastily scrawled note.

Hope you get some rest. I’m sleeping out in my van if you need anything at all

Derek

Ugh. Stupid Derek coming in here, being so helpful and perfect, pretending like he hadn’t been gone for the last eight years. None of this had gone how Angie had planned. It hadn’t been right from the beginning.

In the days leading up to Derek’s arrival, Angie had been a nervous wreck. She’d seriously considered canceling the whole thing at least once a day. But once Graham knew about it, there was no turning back. He counted down the days with absolute joy, announcing each day at breakfast, “Soon my dad will be here!” And even though he’d never liked blueberries before (“I’d rank them as 11th on my list of favorite fruits,” he’d admitted) the kid was going through them like crazy, and using an app on his iPad to learn a few words in Greek.

Because yes, Angie had panicked and gone back to the whole blueberry scientist story. She knew it was wrong, but the real Derek made fast food and lived in a van, and that wasn’t exactly a role model she wanted her son looking up to.

No one in her friend group had ever had to deal with something like this; all the other kids either knew both of their parents (or were the daughters of a deceased stripper). But the person Angie most wanted advice from was Will. He was so good at helping Sophie maintain a good relationship with her mother, while also setting firm boundaries. But Angie had decided this wasn’t important enough to bother him with, since he was busy getting ready for some big date with Tracy (she’d heard about it through the grapevine, otherwise known as Poppy, the group gossip). 

Besides worrying about Graham, she’d also had to worry about herself. The last time Derek came to town, she’d fallen victim to his charms (she crossed her fingers he didn’t play his guitar again this time, or else she’d probably melt into a puddle). And this time she wouldn’t have Will there as a protective buffer. She was all on her own. It was something about being around him again that just made her feel young and reckless and rebellious again. She wasn’t even really attracted to Derek, but it was like a habit. Being with him was like jumping in a temporary time machine back to before kids, and mortgage payments, and every other adult responsibility.

Angie had tried frantically to prepare for every possible situation, dividing the day into carefully planned chunks, emailing Derek pre-approved questions, and declining to shave her legs (one of the most surefire ways to make sure she wouldn’t accidentally succumb to Derek’s sexy man charms).

Of course, it wasn’t really her fault for not having a backup plan for when her son suddenly had the worst stomach bug of his entire life.

Angie laid back on her pillow, staring out the window of her bedroom to the street. Through the closed curtain she could see the outline of Derek’s van, lit up by the heat lamp in Phoebe’s terrarium. The fact that he still lived in a van was no surprise to Angie. Just like when the two of them were young and stupid and in love and didn’t care at all about their living conditions as long as they were following their music idols around the country. She missed being young and careless and crazy in love, even if it was with a deadbeat like Derek.

Derek.

Angie had never thought she’d be grateful for the stomach flu, but thank God she’d had to run to the bathroom before she could screw everything up by kissing him. She’d been so close, too. It was after they’d put Graham to bed, Angie slipping out of his room with a sigh of relief that maybe her son could get some rest and wake up better the next morning.

“See?” she’d told Derek as convincingly as she could muster. “I didn’t need you at all.”

“Yeah,” he’d agreed, but in that super annoying way where Angie could tell he was just humoring her.

He’d kept talking, saying something about his turtle, but Angie had stopped listening.

Not unlike the last time Derek had come to town, she’d felt herself willingly throw all reason out the window. Telling him to stay. Reaching out because suddenly all she wanted to do was kiss him.

Luckily, she’d felt her dinner rocketing up her throat and had to run to the bathroom before anything could happen. And yes, Angie decided, having the stomach flu was still healthier for her than sleeping with Derek again.

It wasn’t so crazy that she was still attracted to Derek, though. Their entire relationship when they’d met in college had been fueled by anger and frustration, at each other and the world. She’d go to his concerts and scream her head off while he screamed onstage, and then they’d make out backstage, raw and exhausted and full of excitement and rage. It was like every time Derek was around, he brought out that side of her again; the side that was spiteful and rebellious and wanted to do the exact opposite of whatever the mature, responsible choice was. 

Or was that really the reason, Angie wondered? The truth was, Derek had been nothing but calm and nice and mature since showing up. He wasn’t anything like the crazy metal-head he’d been when they were last together. When she re-played the moment in her head, Angie realized the last thing Derek had said before she’d tried to kiss him was “That kid is amazing.”

Gross. Somehow that was so much worse.

Being attracted to his hard metal immature band groupie persona was one thing. It was the type of guy Angie had liked her entire life. But being attracted to the side of Derek that was responsible and maybe even a good dad? That was somehow way scarier and way worse.

She missed the days when guitar skills and long floppy hair won her heart. But the truth was, she was just into good dads now. Which made sense when she considered that the entire evening, she’d just wished Will was there with her.

Angie felt her stomach begin to churn, though she couldn’t tell if it was nerves or the rest of her dinner coming up.

The last time she and Graham had been sick, it had actually been Will who had helped them. Sophie and Graham had caught the stomach flu from a classmate at school, and Graham promptly passed it on to Angie. Will had spent the weekend taking care of the three of them and showing off his variety of delicious homemade get-well-soon soups.

It stung now more than ever that Angie couldn’t just call Will to come over here and help her.

Angie’s phone buzzed on her nightstand. She reached over to check and saw that it was from Will. 

At text from Will. At 1:07am? Honestly not totally unheard of normally, but they’d been barely texting since the anniversary party.

Angie felt her heart jump, and she took a couple deep breaths to keep herself from vomiting. She unlocked her phone to look and saw a dizzyingly long paragraph of a text that she had no shot at getting through in this state. Easing herself up to sit on the edge of her bed, she hit the call button before she had time to talk herself out of it.

Yes, it was probably stupid to call him, especially before reading the text. But—Yeah, she didn’t have an argument. Maybe if this all went badly, she could blame the fever and her flu-ridden brain.

Will picked up on the second ring.

“Angie?”

Just hearing his voice was so good, a feeling of relief. But then came the part where she was now supposed to respond. Angie felt a sudden wave of panic and nausea all at once, and her mouth was suddenly too dry to form words. What was he going to say? What couldn’t wait until Monday afternoon when they picked up the kids from school?

“Angie, you there?”

“Hey,” Angie stuttered shakily.

“Hey…?” Will replied. “Is this in response to the text I just sent?”

“Well, uh actually, I wasn’t able to read the text,” Angie explained. “I’m so freaking sick and my brain isn’t working and I just… can you just read it to me?”

“Oh,” Will replied. “Sure.” She could hear in the slight pause between his words a thousand questions that he wanted to ask. He wanted to know how he could help, ask if Graham was sick, offer to make soup to bring over tomorrow. She could hear him holding back the words.

“Sorry the text was so long,” Will added. “It’s just, I’m working out the babysitting schedule for next month and I didn’t know what nights you want, and I didn’t want our…friend separation or whatever get in the way of you having a say in the days you get. It’s just a list of all the dates and stuff.”

Angie felt her heart drop, partially from relief and partially from disappointment. She wasn’t sure what she’d wanted that text to be about, but babysitting was certainly more mundane than she’d been expecting.

“Okay,” Angie said, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples, trying to get some coherent thoughts moving. “Take me off the schedule for the next week, I don’t need babysitting. Besides that, the 13th I need someone to watch Graham, and I can do one of the Saturday night sleepovers next any weekend.”

“Are you okay doing pickup carpool Tuesdays and Thursdays again?”

“As long as you don’t give me morning drop offs, I don’t care,” she chuckled.

“Okay.” Will paused, probably writing down what she’d said. “Do you… uh, why don’t you need babysitting next week?”

“Um,” Angie cringed as she told him, “Derek’s in town for the week. I want him to have time with Graham.”

“Oh.”

The single word conveyed everything she knew he was thinking. He was probably remembering how much she’d leaned on him the last time Derek was here; how she hadn’t even told him this time.

“Well, I hope everything goes well with that,” Will said quietly. “That’s all the scheduling stuff I needed.”

“Okay, cool.”

“So, goodnight I guess. And I hope you feel better soon.”

“Yeah, goodnight.”

“Oh, Angie?”

Angie felt her stomach clench. Wishing desperately that one of them had more to say, so that they could just talk for a while, but also knowing it would be better if they didn’t.

“Yeah?”

“Just so you know, Tracy and I broke up.”

“Oh.”

This wass was unexpected. This was very unexpected.

“Yeah, I just…wanted to be the one to tell you, before anyone else in the group did.”

A silence fell between the two of them. For several seconds Angie sat, caught up in her thoughts and questions, knowing how much was going unsaid right now. This was all too much and she felt her stomach lurch.

“Well,” Will finally said.

“Well, I guess goodnight,” Angie finished.

“Night, Angie.”

Angie hung up the phone, dropped it onto the bed, and ran to the bathroom. It was going to be a long night…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! Sorry this one was a bit short. I'm trying to get through as many episodes as I can before the finale. As always, I absolutely love kudos and comments of all kinds, especially if you have ideas or feedback for future chapters. Up next is the valentines day episode!
> 
> Also a side-note that I couldn't fit into the chapter but I find absolutely adorable: I love that Rory and Graham both get half-sisters. Except that Rory's is an actual baby and Graham's is a turtle lol


	7. Douglas's Sauna Time (2x14 Yarn and Pebbles)

Derek and Graham brought home Ratso’s for dinner that night, and the three of them sat in Angie’s living room watching TV all evening. Angie was careful to monitor Graham; he’d seemed so scared earlier that Derek might really leave again, and she knew her kid had some anxious tendencies.

The movie they were watching ended around nine, and Derek volunteered to read Graham a bedtime story. Angie stood at the doorway to Graham’s bedroom for a few minutes, listening to Derek read. Cautiously she peered around the doorway to see Derek perched on Graham’s bed, one arm around Graham, Mr. Roar balanced on his lap.

Angie felt her stomach twist, and for a moment she feared those annoying tears from earlier might make a reappearance. It was just… seeing Graham so happy made Angie happy. But it also made her sad, because how many hundreds or thousands of moments like this had he missed out on by not having his dad around? She hated Derek for leaving, and loved him for coming back. She was frustrated by the way he complicated things, wanted everything to go back to the way it was, and at the same time wondered if he could be a real part of her and Graham’s lives. She wasn’t an idiot; she knew she had some unresolved feelings to work through. But she never worked through her feelings unless someone (usually Will) forced her to. Too bad Angie couldn’t call him up and let him work his magic. She bit back the stupid tears threatening to burst, and left Derek to finish the story.

When Derek reappeared in the living room, Angie was flipping through shows on Netflix, trying to find something they could watch. She hadn’t quite nailed down Derek’s taste in television yet. The night before, they’d given up trying to find something to watch, and had gone through Angie’s old box of concert tickets she’d saved over the years. He was the only person she knew who loved the music the way she did, and it was nice.

“Hey,” Derek said, padding into the room. “I’ve gotta run out to my van to give Phoebe her bedtime snack and put her to bed.”

“Okay,” Angie replied with a smirk. She’d never met someone so obsessed with their pet before. Angie watched Derek open the door and then hesitate, turning to look at her.

“Should I, uh… should I come back when I’m done?”

Angie weighed her options. The winning factor was that she didn’t really want to be alone right now.

“Sure, we can watch a movie or something. I’ll just be here, scrolling through Netflix.”

“Cool.” Derek grinned and shuffled out. Angie watched through the window as he climbed into his van.

There was nothing good on Netflix, and she didn’t feel like watching TV anyway. All Angie really wanted to do was call Will, but now more than ever, she felt like she couldn’t. Before, she just assumed the only thing keeping them apart was Tracy. But now, Will and Tracy were broken up, and things were still weird! She didn’t want to call Poppy, because Poppy was one of the few other people who would force to talk about feelings and other annoying things. That didn’t leave her with many options. Angie grabbed her phone. There were two rings before someone answered.

“Hello?”

“Douglas, thank God you picked up.”

Angie heard Douglas sigh.

“Hey Angie. Why exactly are you calling me right now? I’m in my sauna.”

“Douglas, our time living together has made me reliant on your wisdom.”

Douglas groaned.

“Are you and Will still doing this whole friend separation thing, is that why you keep bugging me?”

“No…” Angie said, hoping it sounded convincing. “Well, we are, maybe. I don’t know. That’s not the point. I just… I really appreciated what you said to me today, at Ratso’s. I’m sorry I freaked out.”

“No worries D’Amato,” Douglas said, apparently resigned to this conversation now.

“I guess I just, like, panicked. I just can’t believe how fast kids grow up.”

“Are you kidding me? I can’t _wait_ for my kids to be adults. Then they won’t need me to sign for all the concrete and heavy machinery they keep getting delivered to the house these days.”

“But like, a couple weeks ago, Graham was telling me how he wants to be a weatherman when he grows up, just like Will, learning about science and clouds and all that crap. And then today he’s suddenly wanting to work at a _fast food restaurant?_ ” I’m trying to keep up, but what if he grows up to be a flaky fast food worker like Derek?”

“You can’t control what he grows up to be, Angie. Though after seeing him work that drive-through line today, I definitely think the kid’s got a knack for sales. You just have to support him.”

“I know. It’s just, Derek is such a terrible role model compared to…” Angie didn’t finish the sentence; suddenly aware she’d talked herself into a corner.

“Compared to what?”

“Compared to…Will, I guess.” Angie knew how weird it sounded to say out loud. Even Douglas was gonna call her on this one.

“Well why are you comparing Derek and Will? One’s the deadbeat father of your son and the other is your friend.”

Angie knew, somewhere in the back of her brain, why the comparisons between Derek and Will kept popping up in her head. But this was why Angie loved talking to Douglas about this stuff; because he never really listened enough to realize when what the true problem was, so he never made her confront any of the hard questions. Which was good, because Angie didn’t like answering hard questions.

“It sounds to me, Angie,” Douglas said, “Like you just miss Will. You two are being ridiculous lately, and it’s throwing off the dynamic of our whole group.” He paused for a moment before adding, “I hate that I just used the phrase ‘dynamics of our group.’”

Angie sighed.

“You’re right. Thanks, Douglas. For everything today.”

“No problem Angie. But you still owe me a Douglas day to make up for hijacking my trip to the farmer’s market.”

“Fine.”

“Goodnight Angie.”

“Goodnight.”

Douglas hung up with Angie and tossed his phone beside him on the sauna bench with a long sigh. There was nothing he wanted to do more than relax here for the rest of the night and ignore the loud sound of concrete drilling coming from outside. The girls had mentioned something to him about putting in a new pool deck, but truthfully he hadn’t been listening.

But he just couldn’t relax. He kept running through the events of the day in his head: Angie showing up, messing up his Douglas Day, breaking down in tears at the Ratso’s, and now calling him at night to complain about how much better a person Will was than Derek? None of it made sense, but Douglas knew there was someone who would understand. He grabbed his phone to call Poppy.

She picked up on the third ring, and before she said hello, Douglas heard her yell, “Rory, get your butt into your fancy silk pajamas and get into bed right now or else I will confiscate your tap shoes!”

Douglas heard Rory gasp in the distance, and smiled as Poppy sighed into the phone.

“Sorry about that, Rory’s being a bit of a terror tonight. We watched the season finale of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and the twist ending made him so angry he’s been pouting around the house.”

“I’m not pouting, I’m protesting the fact that Patricia Velour was robbed of her well-deserved victory!” Douglas heard Rory yell.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard you say that a hundred times tonight kid, go get in bed,” Poppy yelled back. “Anyway, what’s up Hon? Good to hear from you.”

Douglas smiled. Just hearing Poppy’s voice always made his heart flutter.

“Hey my love. I’m calling because a matter has arisen that seems like a women’s’ issue, way out of my league.”

“Okay, shoot,” Poppy replied. He could practically hear her rolling her eyes at the phrase “women’s issue.”

“Well Angie just called me. Asking me for advice. Totally interrupted my sauna time! And I spent the day with her helping her deal with Derek, and she just seemed so… sad. She says it’s because of Derek being here, but… I don’t know. She just seems like kind of a mess right now.”

There was a pause while Poppy, the advice genius, processed what he’d said.

“Well Angie’s not the only one who’s a mess. I was at the Winebrary earlier trying to help Will find a rebound date, and it was disastrous. That man is _terrible_ at flirting.”

“Sometimes I feel like we’re the only sane people in this group, Pop.”

Poppy chuckled.

“I think Angie and Will just miss each other,” Poppy said after a moment. “They’ve been so weird around each other lately, and I think they’d both be better off if they’d just talk about it. It’s totally ruining our group vibe.”

“That’s what I said!”

“Tell you what, I’m gonna go get Rory in bed, and then I’ll call Will. I probably owe him another apology anyway after today.”

“What happened?”

“Oh, I sort of dumped his new girlfriend for him. It’s complicated. But she was the worst! And anyway, you know me. Sometimes I know what’s best for people better than they do.”

Douglas smiled. He wished Poppy were here with him now.

From the background on Poppy’s end of the line, Douglas heard Rory yelling, and Poppy groaned.

“I gotta go deal with this kid. Goodnight Douglas. I love you.”

“Love you too, Pop. See you at carpool tomorrow.”

Poppy hung up the phone and stomped into Rory’s room where he was angrily climbing into bed.

“Just so you know,” he told her as she walked in, “I will never recover from this tragedy.”

“Rory, Patricia Velour was overrated and we both know it. I love her but that pink dress in the final round was amateur hour. So quite complaining.”

The only way to get Rory to quiet down was to out-sass him. He rolled his eyes and let Poppy tuck him in.

“Now get some sleep and you’ll feel better in the morning,” Poppy insisted. She turned on his nightlight and flipped off the lights, and then went out to the living room to call Will. As she unlocked her phone, Poppy marveled to herself at the fact that Douglas of all people had called about this. The man who supposedly cared about no one. It made her so happy to know he was invested in the rest of the group. He was such a secret softie. She called Will, and waited for him to pick up.

It had been a long day for Will. He’d gone from hopelessly single to having a serious girlfriend, to finding out he was again single and destined to be alone forever. Okay, maybe it didn’t seem that way to Poppy and Miggy. But Will had meant what he’d said at the Winebrary; he wasn’t good at meeting people, he couldn’t do first dates. When he’d first moved here with Sophie last year, he’d been completely lost in the vortex of parenthood. And sure, he’d come a long way, but his comfort level was still just with the other single parents. The things he needed out of a relationship were just too much. With both Mia and Tracy, he’d failed to find a balance between parenting and romance. He needed someone who fit into the life he already had.

He knew how impossible that sounded.

But he’d met Mia because she lived across the hall from him freshman year of college. Then he met Dr. Dewan because she was Sophie’s pediatrician. Then Tracy because she was his boss. Will wondered if his baseline requirement for girlfriends was just proximity.

Will knew he was probably being a little crazy. After all, Kay, wasn’t really compatible with him. Like at all. But that movie they’d seen had be _so good,_ he’d almost mistaken it for love.

Now he was home, cleaning up from dinner. Sophie had barely eaten anything, telling him she’d “already eaten enough food to last ten lifetimes” and dramatically retreating to her room. Douglas was so irresponsible about that kind of thing, Will thought to himself. Sophie always came home full of junk food when he babysat. It was a good thing Poppy was getting him to eat better now.

Will was stressed, and felt the compulsive urge to deep clean the kitchen, but he’d already done that twice today. He could hear Sophie from down the hall, chatting with a friend from space camp on the phone. Will had the stinging feeling in his gut that had been cropping up a lot in the past few weeks: loneliness.

He couldn’t even say it was just because of Tracy. Honestly, he’d been feeling this way since… well, since he’d stopped talking to Angie.

Will’s parents were on some couples’ retreat together in an attempt to heal their relationship, and he didn’t want to bother them. He knew that after dinner was Douglas’s sauna time, and there’d be hell to pay if that got interrupted. He obviously couldn’t call Angie, and he was still mad Poppy and Miggy for being so manipulative today.

Will poured himself a glass of wine and settled on the couch to watch TV. He turned on the news to watch the 8pm weather report. His co-workers who did the evening news were on the screen, pointing out cold fronts and wind patterns, and it made Will smile. When he was a kid and he’d first fallen in love with weather reporting, he would record weather reports on the DVR and watch them over and over after school. He’d examine the clouds outside his window and then make impromptu weather reports for his parents. Yes, he was a nerdy child, but he’d known what he wanted. His whole life, Will had been an awkward, weather loving guy who always knew exactly what he wanted, even if it took him a while to get there. And this was the first time in a while when he had no idea what he wanted.

His phone rang, and he picked it before looking to see who it was.

“Hello?”

“Hey Will.”

“Hey Poppy, what’s up?”

“I’m just calling to check in, see how you’re doing. And apologize for earlier. I probably shouldn’t have just kicked Kay out of the Winebrary like that.”

Will chuckled despite himself.

“It’s okay. She was kind of boring.”

“Kind of? Will, that woman was the human equivalent of paint drying. She sucked. But I understand why you liked her.”

“You do?”

“You’re scared. She seemed like a safe choice. But safe choices don’t necessarily make you happy. Why are you so convinced you won’t be able to find someone who’s actually a good fit for you?”

“Poppy, I know I won’t be able to. I’m terrible at dating! My relationship with Mia ended in a messy divorce, after Dr. Dewan and I broke up I had to find Sophie a new pediatrician, and dating Tracy cost me my best friend--”

Will heard the words come out of his mouth, and the first thing that popped into his head was that he didn’t know he’d thought that.

“Cost you your best friend?” Poppy asked. “Do you really think that?”

“I…I don’t know, actually. I guess I thought Angie and I could stay friends, but recently it’s been so weird between us. She and Tracy had some weird thing against each other. And Tracy kind of made me pick, her or Angie. Now I feel like that was the wrong choice.”

Literally every word out of Will’s mouth made him realize how stupid this all was. He felt stupid for being so upset about this.

“Oh for goodness sake, Will, this is ridiculous,” Poppy replied without pause. “You two are full grown adults, and you’re gossiping about each other like kids in elementary school instead of just talking about the problem. Angie called Douglas earlier tonight saying she misses you! So just call her up and fix things.”

Will felt his heart jump.

“She said she misses me? Did she _actually_ say that?”

Poppy sighed.

“Will, just call her.”

“Okay, I will. Thanks, Poppy. Sorry for dragging you into all this.”

“It’s no problem. It’s the least I can do after today.”

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“See you tomorrow. Goodnight, Will.”

“Goodnight, Poppy.”

Will was unbelievably nervous. When he went to find Angie’s number to call, he noticed from his call history that they’d called each other only once since starting this whole friend separation. That one very weird conversation at 1am last week.

Angie picked up on the fifth ring, just as Will had decided the call would go to voicemail.

“Will?”

He wasn’t sure why he was so startled by her voice. Like, of course if you call someone they’ll pick up and say hello, but for some reason he hadn’t actually thought she’d answer.

“Angie.”

It didn’t really come out as a question, or a greeting. It was just an awkward sort of statement. Angie. He was talking to Angie. _Be cool Will, stop freaking out._

“Uh, what’s up?”

“Um, how are you feeling? I know when we talked a few days ago you said--”

“Oh, I’m totally fine now. Graham and I manage to get the stomach flu every year. Strong immune systems do _not_ run in the D’Amato family.”

“Well that’s good. Is Derek still around?”

“I’m looking through my window at his van right now. We were gonna watch a movie, but he apparently had to go feed his turtle and put her to bed.”

Will felt his stomach twist before he’d even had time to process the words. He missed spending evenings with Angie, watching terrible movies they found on Netflix. The idea of her hanging out with stupid Derek all week annoyed him more than it probably should’ve. After all, Derek was Graham’s dad, and they deserved to spend time together. But Will missed seeing Angie. And he missed seeing Graham! Last month, when Graham showed a sudden interest in learning about weather, Will had been overjoyed, and promised the two of them would go see the weather exhibit at the science museum together. But with the whole friend separation, he’d felt weird bringing it up to Angie, so it never happened.

“So, I just wanted to say, I think we should end the friend separation.”

There was a long pause on Angie’s end of the line. Will panicked, not wanting to hear her response, and continued.

“And I know I’m not the one who started it, so I don’t know if I really get to decide, but Tracy and I broke up, and I can’t think of any reason why we can’t just go back normal, and I miss hanging out with you, and I want to take Graham to the space museum, and I’m definitely rambling now, so I’ll just shut up.”

Angie chuckled.

“Dude, calm down. I… I agree. I miss hanging out with you too. And Graham would love going to the museum with you. I just…don’t know how easy it’ll be to just go back to normal.”

Neither of them said anything for a moment. Will tried to process what Angie had said. He’d assumed this whole time that the separation had been because Angie didn’t like Tracy. Or something like that—he hadn’t totally understood. But now Tracy was gone, and she still didn’t think they could go back to normal? What was in the way?

“Okay, I understand,” he said, hoping it sounded nonchalant. “Let’s just…take it slow…I guess.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Will had had many late night phone calls with Angie. The two of them could talk for hours and never run out of conversation topics. Never once could he remember sitting in awkward silence with her like this. He scrambled desperately to find some familiar territory.

“So, would you be willing to help me run the Valentine’s party thing for the kids’ class next week? Douglas is supposed to be making assignments, but I’m basically taking over.”

Angie groaned.

“Will, there is nothing in this world I want to do less than attend a Valentine’s dinner run by our eight year old children. Let alone run it.”

“Come on, it’ll be fun! Plus we’ll get to hang out.”

“Okay,” Angie replied after a moment. “Sign me up.”

“Yes! I’ll tell Douglas.”

“Oh, uh, Derek just came back in, so I need to go now,” Angie said. Will was half relieved that she was giving him an out from this awkward conversation, and half disappointed. He really missed talking to her.

“Oh, okay. Well I guess I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon at carpool then.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

Angie hung up the phone and felt an enormous whoosh of air leave her lungs. Her entire body was tensed with nerves. That was the weirdest conversation of her entire life. And this was the same man she used to spend every free second hanging out with! Was this how it was going to be now? Would they ever be back to normal? Derek hadn’t even come back inside yet, she’d just made that up to get off the phone. Talking to Will made her feel so many emotions, but the one she was most surprised by was anger. They hadn’t talked in weeks, and now suddenly he thought he could just fix everything with a phone call?

But _God_ did she want it to go back to normal. She wanted her best friend back.

She just hoped it was possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got longer than I intended. Sorry for leaving Miggy out of the phone call train, the chapter was getting too long, and also I have a hard time coming up with dialogue for him lol. Hopefully I'll find the motivation to finish this series up soon.
> 
> Up next is the Valentine's episode! So I'm gonna have to figure out why on God's green earth Angie was so obsessed with Colin. Anyone else think that love interest was a little out of character for her...?


	8. Stupid Miggy and his Stupid Germs (2x15, Chez Second Grade)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during/the day after Chez Second Grade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of doubt anyone is still following this story, given that it's been four months and the show's been cancelled, but if you are, hey, thanks for reading! I've been really getting back into writing lately, and I'd like to finish this series since I only have a few chapters left to do.

Angie woke up on Saturday morning with one of the worst headaches of her life. Rolling over to grab her phone, she let out a groan, but stopped herself when she felt how raw and sore her throat was. Angie forced herself to sit up. She didn’t need a thermometer to tell she had a fever.

_Miggy._

Stupid Miggy, bring his _stupid_ strep throat germs to the school last night. Angie had known it was a bad idea to let him help, but she’d been so overwhelmed by everything else going on that it had fallen to the wayside. _Ugh._ Stupid Valentine’s day had ruined everything.

Angie had not been looking forward to this whole Valentine’s-at-the-school thing. For a lot of good reasons.

First off, it was a Valentine’s Day dinner cooked by their children. Her son’s second grade classroom was quite possibly the place Angie least wanted to be on a Friday night. Secondly, she had been embarrassingly nervous to hang out with Will again. They’d gone from spending nearly every free second together just a month ago to barely even talking, and Angie felt like she was just starting to emotionally adjust to the change. Now Will was here, volunteering her to help with school events, insisting everything was back to normal, and Angie had just felt… nervous. Maybe things couldn’t go back to normal? She _really_ wanted them to, but Angie knew there was just one pesky thing standing in the way of that.

_Feelings._

In the long four weeks of their friend separation, Angie had been sort of forced to accept the fact that she was a little, teeny weeny bit dependent on Will. Okay, she was a _lot_ dependent on Will. Three days after the debacle at his parents’ anniversary party, Graham had asked for help putting together a poster for a presentation at school, and Angie’s first thought was to call Will, who literally owned every type of marker, glitter glue, and art supply in available. But she didn’t. And it went beyond just wanting his help; she found her evenings were a lot lonelier when he and Sophie weren’t around, or when she couldn’t call him after putting Graham to bed. And for Angie, who’d always been fiercely independent, that set off the alarm bells.

So slowly, painfully, and only after many days of trying to push the thoughts out of her mind, Angie had allowed herself to accept that yes, there were reasons besides friendship that she’d been jealous of Tracy. But with this unfortunate conclusion came the next one; Angie needed to get over this stupid crush, and fast. She was not about to ruin their friend reunion by being awkward around him. She needed something else to distract her.

The answer for this had come pretty quickly. A couple weeks ago, a new single dad and his son had moved to town. His kid, Percy seemed pretty weird from what Angie could tell, but Colin was about as attractive as a young, well dressed British guy with a kick-ass messenger bag could get. Which is to say, _very._

The plan was simple; Angie would simply seduce Colin with her stellar charm and date him long enough to get over this whole Will thing and everything would be fine. Sure, it seemed like every mom in the school was checking him out, but Angie had an in: She and Colin had passed each other at the gas station last week. It was basically like any meet cute from a rom-com movie.

But Angie knew she was also rusty. And so she was nervous. She knew what was riding on this. If she allowed these ridiculous _feelings_ of hers to get in the way of things, she’d lose her friendship with Will. So the plan was clear: Angie needed to woo Colin.

But of course, Angie’s plans never really worked out the way she wanted them to.

Angie forced herself to climb out of bed and managed to get to the kitchen for a glass of water. Her throat felt like it was on fire and all she wanted to do was go back to sleep, but she’d promised Will she would pick Graham up before he and Sophie had to leave for her Clarinet lesson at ten.

She put on a pair of yoga pants and the first sweatshirt she could find, stuffed her feet in the nearest pair of shoes (which were rainboots, but she _really_ didn’t care), and was just grabbing her keys when her phone buzzed in her pocket.

It was Will’s number.

“Hello?” Angie answered.

“Hello?” It was Sophie.

“Sophie, why are you calling me? Where’s your dad?”

“On the brink of death, apparently.”

“What?”

“Yeah whatever germs Miggy had last night, he totally gave to my dad and Graham. Dad won’t get out of bed and Graham has a fever. At least I think he does. Neither of us really knows how to use a thermometer.”

“Are you sick?” Angie asked.

“I’m hiding in my room so I don’t get their germs! So far I think I’m safe. Angie, you have to come save me!”

“Well bad news, Kid, I’m sick too,” Angie replied. “But I’ll come over now to get Graham. See if you can wake your dad up.”

Angie arrived on Will’s doorstep ten minutes later in much worse condition than she’d started the journey in. She’d pulled over on the side of the road halfway through to vomit, and she was seriously regretting her choice to not take any medicine before leaving the house.

Angie knocked on the door and there was no response. She rang the doorbell, and after a significant delay, the door cracked open to reveal Sophie, still in her pajamas. She was covering her mouth with her sleeve.

“Sorry Angie, I don’t want to breathe in any of your germs,” she said apologetically. “Good luck getting Graham out of here though.”

Sophie stepped back and allowed Angie to step inside. Graham was lying face down on the living room carpet, sound asleep.

“How did he even get there?” Angie asked, confused. She didn’t think Will would have allowed the kids to just sleep on the floor.

“What can I say, the fever ridden brain does strange things,” Sophie replied. “Now I’m going to go back to my room before you guys get me sick. Good luck. By the way, you my want to check on Dad.”

Sophie spun on her heel and disappeared down the hall. Angie kicked off of her rainboots and went over to check on Graham. With great effort, she knelt down to give his shoulder a shake. Nothing.

“Graham, Buddy, you need to get up,” She said.

Graham groaned, one eye opening just slightly to look up at his mother.

“Mom,” he rasped. “I think my brain is melting. My head is so hot.”

Angie felt his forehead, and he was indeed burning up.

“Buddy, you’re brain’s not melting, you just have a fever,” she said gently, helping Graham sit up. “I’m going to take you home now, but first I need to go check in on Will. Think we can get you off the floor first?”

Graham nodded, and Angie took his arm to help him stand up and walk over to the couch.

“Okay, wait here, and I’ll come back in a few minutes and take you home,” Angie said, though the idea of driving anywhere right now felt nearly impossible. Every word she said sent a burning pain down her throat, and she felt dizzy from her fever.

Angie stumbled down the hall to Will’s bedroom. The door was closed. She reached for the knob, but hesitated for a moment.

Yes, their friendship boundaries were already a little weird right now, but this felt _really_ weird. Going into Will’s bedroom while he was sleeping? What if he slept in his underwear? What if he didn’t want Angie to see him all sick?

Still, her duty to check on her friend won over, and Angie hesitantly opened the door. His room was dark, the shades drawn. Angie could just barely make out Will’s form underneath the sheets. All of the blankets except for his top sheet had been thrown off the bed, and one of his feet was hanging out to the side.

“Will,” Angie said quietly. The lump underneath the sheets didn’t stir. “ _Will_ ,” Angie called again. She stepped cautiously closer to the bed. “Will, Dude, are you okay?”

Will woke with a start, his head jerking up suddenly.

“Angie?” he said. His voice sounded hoarse. “Wait are you actually here right now, or is this another fever induced hallucination?”

_Another?_ Angie thought.

“I’m really here,” she assured Will.

“What’s going on? What time is it?”

“It’s…” Angie pulled out her phone. “Nine thirty.”

“Shoot,” Will moaned. “Sophie’s lesson. I gotta get up-”

“Dude Sophie’s not going anywhere with you right now. She’s hiding in her room because she doesn’t want to get sick. Besides, I doubt you could safely drive at the moment.”

“Ugh,” Will moaned, sitting up. Angie was relieved to see he’s wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants. “Stupid Miggy and his stupid germs.”

“That’s exactly what I said!”

“Look Angie,” Will said, dropping his head into his hands. “I’m clearly sick, and only fifty percent certain you’re actually here right now and this isn’t a dream. Any chance you can watch Sophie just for the morning? I literally feel like death.”

Angie probably should have informed him that she, too, was sick. But she _really_ didn’t want to let Will down, so she just nodded. She didn’t think she could drive Graham home right now anyway, so she might as well just stay.

“Yeah, I can stay here for now. I’ll be out in the living room.”

“Thanks Ange,” Will said. Then without saying anything else, he flopped back down onto his bed and shut his eyes. Angie stood there for a moment in awkward silence before heading back to the living room.

Graham was asleep on the couch, he head lolled back onto the cushions.

Blearily, Angie forced herself to rummage through the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, finding some cough medicine and throat lozenges. She woke Graham up long enough to give him a dose of medicine, then she poured Sophie a bowl cereal for breakfast and left it at her door.

Angie curled up on the big comfy armchair in the living room, and decided to close her eyes for _just a few minutes…_

Will spent the morning drifting in and out of fitful sleep. Eventually he forced himself to get out of bed because he needed to pee.

His phone informed him the time was eleven thirty, so Sophie had already missed her Clarinet lesson. He felt bad for Sophie, but he felt _worse_ for himself. He was covered in sweat and his throat burned.

Will changed into a new set of pajamas, because he didn’t want to look all gross and sick in front of Angie, but also didn’t have any plans to leave the house today.

He shuffled out of his room and down the hall. The house seemed very quiet.

Coming around the corner into the living room, Will first saw Graham, lying on his stomach on the carpet, sound asleep. He then looked up so see Angie, dressed in a neon yellow hoodie, with one rainboot on her right foot, completely passed out. It suddenly occurred to Will that if he’d gotten sick from Miggy, it was highly likely Angie had too.

Will went to Sophie’s room and knocked gently on the door.

“You in there Soph?”

“Yes, but don’t come in here with your germs,” Sophie warned.

“I won’t,” Will promised. “But are you doing okay? Have you just been alone all morning?”

“Oh don’t worry, I’m doing fine. I’m just watching Moana on my iPad.”

“Have you eaten anything yet?”

“Yep! Angie made me some cereal. Are she and Graham still here?”

“Yep, they’re asleep in the living room.”

“Ugh. Can you text Poppy or Douglas and ask them to come get me out of here?”

“I’ll try, Kiddo. Let me know if you need anything.”

Will paused back in the living room, trying to process this moment. This was really not how he expected today to go after last night.

Will had watched Angie and Colin leave, not really sure what to think. The logical, rational part of his brain was patting himself on the back; they’d pulled off the dinner, repaired their friendship, and Will had gotten Angie set up with the perfect guy. All good things. Why didn’t he feel all good things then? He’d honestly felt… terrible.

Which was weird, because he’d very specifically avoided eating any of the food, knowing full well that Miggy and the kids had probably spread their germs over everything.

Well, okay _fine,_ there had been one little tiny reason why this whole evening had suddenly felt like a bust: He’d been supposed to spend more time with Angie. He’d literally been looking forward to this Valentine’s dinner all week; they seemed to have some sort of unspoken rule that they wouldn’t hang out until then, as if this dinner marked the official end of their friend separation. Will had thought they’d be a super team, having a great time and making a kickass dinner, then taking the kids back to his place for a sleepover, staying up late and watching movies.

Instead they’d spent most of the evening distracted by Miggy and Colin and fighting with each other, and now Angie had left with someone else.

It was just, he missed her _so much_ , and getting to spend tonight with Angie just made will desperate to go back to the way things were before, when they spent every free second together.

Will had felt a small tug on his sleeve. It was Graham, holding a small wad of cash and his bow tie, which he’d taken off.

“Hey Big Dubs, can we go soon? I’m exhausted.”

“Yeah, your mom had to leave for a… work thing,” Will had said, not sure if Angie wanted Graham to know about this date. He figured not. “I have your overnight bag in my car.”

“Oh, okay. Do you have a safe at your house where I can keep my money? Not brag, but I earned a cool thirty dollars tonight.”

“Sure bud. I’m gonna go find Sophie so we can head home.”

“Just follow the sound of the terrible violin noises,” Graham had called after him.

Both of the kids had fallen asleep on the drive home from the school, Graham still clutching his money against his chest. Will managed to herd them both inside and into bed, and then poured himself a glass of wine and scrolled aimlessly through Netflix.

He’d been so excited to hang out with Angie after the party tonight that he’d even gone through Netflix earlier in the day looking for more terrible TV shows for them to watch. He’d had the trailer for Joust! pulled up on his phone, ready to watch, because he’d been so excited to show it to her. He’d even made sure to buy her favorite wine when he was at the store earlier, tucking it away in the cabinet, knowing he had a lot to do to earn back her friendship.

Sitting there, alone on his couch on Valentine’s day, miserable about cancelled plans that had never really existed in the first place, Will had come to an unfortunate, yet unavoidable conclusion:

He liked Angie. He liked her in an “I want to sit around getting wine drunk and watching Joust with you” kind of way, but also in an “I think about you all the time and I wonder what it would be like to kiss you” kind of way too.

Which was… problematic.

Because Will had just finished patching up things with Angie, and he knew that whatever these feelings were, they would get in the way of things going back to normal. Besides, Will had reasoned, it was Valentine’s day, and he’d just had a breakup; it was only natural that he’d feel lonely. This would all pass in a few days.

But standing here in the living room, Will didn’t feel the kind of feelings that pass in a few days. He felt the kind of feelings that were overpowering; a little dizzying. Though some of that could’ve been from the fever.

The thing was, even though all of this was wrong, everyone getting sick, Sophie missing her lesson, Angie and Graham ending up in his living room, it all just felt very _right_. Will just felt relief at having all four of them in one place again after so long. He missed it.

Eventually Will felt weird just standing there, so he went to his room and grabbed his phone to text the group chat among all the parents.

_Will: Can anyone watch Sophie for the day? Angie and I are both sick (thanks a lot Miggy) so I’m kinda looking at you Poppy and Douglas._

The responses pinged back within a few moments.

_Douglas: I have my big dermatology convention this week, can’t risk getting sick._

_Poppy: I’m with Douglas on this one. Keep your possibly infectious kid at home. But can I run by the store and pick anything up for you? I’m assuming Angie and Graham are at your place?_

Will wasn’t sure why exactly Poppy would assume that.

_Will: Yes they are. Can you get us some Motrin or Advil? I only have the kids kind. Also coffee because otherwise I will never make it through this day._

_Poppy: I’ll be there in twenty._

Will scrolled through his messages and noticed that he’d gotten some texts from Angie that he hadn’t read yet. They were from the night before, around eleven thirty, just after he’d gone to bed.

_Thanks for everything tonight_

_I’m glad we’re friends again_

_Also I watched the Joust trailer and it looks AWESOME_

_Also Colin is very cute_

_Oh also I’ll pick up Graham early tomorrow, don’t worry. I know Sophie has her lesson._

Angie had this habit of breaking her thoughts up into several texts, especially when she was a little drunk.

Will read the texts. Then he read them again. _Friends. I’m so glad we’re friends._ Just seeing those words made him giddy. All of the feelings from before washed over him, and all Will wanted to do was go wake Angie up and talk to her about anything and everything and spend every last second with her.

And that, Will knew, was trouble.

When Angie’s was next awoken, it was by Graham shaking her shoulder.

“Mom, wake up.”

“What? Where am I?” She was temporarily disoriented, and wondered for a moment if she’d actually managed to get her and Graham home and just forgotten about it.

“We’re at Sophie’s house. Will said I had to wake you up just to make sure you weren’t in a coma. Also there’s soup ready if you want to eat it.”

Angie felt like she’d been asleep for a year. She also felt like a disgusting blob of a human. She did _not_ want Will to see her this way.

Angie caught herself. Wait, this was a good thing. She needed to get over Will. She needed to make this friendship as platonic as possible. And Angie’s current state, dressed in mismatching clothes with one rainboot (how did that get there?), with dried drool on her face? This was as platonic as it could get.

“I already ate, and Will gave me some cough medicine, the strong stuff, so I’m gonna go lay back down before I zonk out. Will gave me his bed.”

“Do you feel better?” Angie asked, reaching out to feel Graham’s forehead. He looked a lot better than he had this morning. Wait, what time was it again?

“Yeah, my throat still hurts a lot though. And I’m tired.”

“Okay, Bud. Thanks for waking me up. Go get some rest.”

Graham leaned in to give Angie a hug before heading down the hall.

Angie forced herself up and trudged to the kitchen. Will was slumped over at the table, a bowl of soup in front of him. There was another bowl set across from him.

“Hey,” Angie said.

“Hey,” he said with a tired smile. He looked exhausted.

“So, sorry about falling asleep in your living room for the last…” Angie glanced at the clock. 1:17. “four hours.”

“Thank you, for showing up this morning and checking on the kids when I was dead to the world,” Will replied.

“I barely did anything, I was literally a zombie.”

“Well, at least if we’re both half conscious, together maybe we make one responsible adult.”

Angie grinned and plopped herself down at the table.

“I got me and Sophie appointments at the doctor for this evening. The pediatrician has space for Graham too, you just have to call.”

Angie nodded gratefully. She knew Will would’ve already scheduled it all for her if he could.

“Thanks for the soup.”

“Oh it’s no problem. I always make it when Sophie and I are sick.”

“Sophie still hiding in her room?”

“Yep. I couldn’t get Douglas or Poppy to watch her. She came out here once to get water and held her breath the whole time. Also Graham was asleep on the floor for the whole morning, is that normal?”

To Angie’s surprise, she felt herself smile. Then she started to laugh. It hurt her throat like hell, but this moment was just too funny.

“What?” Will asked, confused.

“Nothing,” she said between giggles. “It’s just, this is so weird. This exact situation is something that would only happen to us.”

Will grinned.

“Yeah, I guess it is. And I am so going to get Miggy back for this somehow. But hey, I’m just glad to spend time with you again.”

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, slurping their soup.

“Hey,” Will finally said. “Last night you mentioned that Graham met Derek, but you never got to tell me about it.”

“Yeah, he did.”

“Well, wanna tell me now? I’m all ears.”

Yes, Angie knew this was weird. Every other time in her life that she’d been sick, she’d wanted to curl up in bed and talk to no one. She knew any normal person would say “Thanks for letting me take a nap here, me and my sick kid are going home now.” She knew that.

But Will made her _soup,_ and took care of Graham and gave him his bed. And it didn’t even need to be said that Will expected Angie and Graham to stay the rest of the day, she just knew.

And right now, all she really wanted to do in this moment was sit here and be with Will.

And that, Angie knew, was trouble.


End file.
